Chongqing - From December 12 to 13, the acclaimed stage play La Père (French for The Father) arrives in Chongqing with two performances at the Shiguangnan Grand Theatre. Presented by Chongqing Performing Arts Co., Ltd. and produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, the production brings together two of China’s most respected stage artists, Jin Shijie and Tian Shui, leading audiences through an emotionally intricate journey of memory, loss, and love. 

La Père is a show about a father suffering Alzheimer's (Photo: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre)

Adapted from French playwright Florian Zeller’s award-winning work, La Père has earned international acclaim since its 2014 premiere, including the Molière Award for Best Play, as well as nominations for both the Tony Awards and the Olivier Awards.

The Chinese-language production coming to Chongqing preserves one of the original play’s most striking devices: a stage design that subtly shifts, rotates, and rearranges as the story unfolds. Familiar furniture disappears, rooms transform, and entire settings dissolve into ambiguity. Through these disorienting transitions, audiences are drawn directly into the subjective world of André, an elderly man grappling with the erosion of memory caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

La Père is a show about a father suffering Alzheimer's (Photo: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre)

Jin Shijie’s portrayal of André has been widely described as “a masterclass in emotional precision.” The 73-year-old veteran actor employs what he calls a “stepping-into-nothingness” technique to convey moments when memory suddenly vanishes and panic takes hold. Opposite him, Tian Shui delivers a performance marked by raw authenticity as a daughter torn between devotion and exhaustion. Drawing on her own experience caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s, Tian anchors the role in deeply personal and intimate details.

Pre-show talk (Photo: Chongqing Performing Arts Co., Ltd.)

As the year draws to a close, La Père offers Chongqing audiences a profound theatrical experience—one that confronts the fragility of memory while illuminating the enduring bond between parent and child.