Chongqing - As a key opening production of the 4th Chongqing Grand Theatre International Arts Festival in September, the spy thriller stage play Night Walker will make its Chongqing premiere on September 16–17.

Departing from the straightforward storytelling of conventional red-themed works, Night Walker avoids stereotypical characterizations, instead focusing on ordinary people caught in agonizing dilemmas amid the tides of history. The production integrates cinematic black-and-white film-set aesthetics and the traditional lion dance. With its innovative stage language, it promises Chongqing audiences an immersive spy drama that balances taut suspense with profound patriotic sentiment.

Poster from Night Walker, which will make its Chongqing premiere on September 16–17. (Chongqing Grande Theatre)

Two Decades On, the Central Academy of Drama Alumni Reunite to Portray Rivalry and Lifelong Bond

Night Walker traces the life trajectories of two Macau teenagers during the War of Resistance over more than a decade. Peng Xiao and Lin Keda grow up together, training in Lingnan lion dance and joining protests in Guangzhou with dreams of saving their nation. Separated by chaos, they reunite years later in Shanghai – only to find themselves on opposite sides: Tang Xu plays Lin Keda, a foreign-trained doctor favored by the Japanese military, while Li Naiwen portrays Peng Xiao, who joins the Wang Jingwei regime and becomes the head of the infamous “No. 76” secret service. Each harbors hidden identities and navigates multiple rival factions. The question of “friend or foe” haunts the entire narrative, as human struggles and choices of faith unfold layer by layer.

The production’s biggest draw is the long-awaited return of powerhouse actor Li Naiwen to the stage after 20 years, alongside his classmate Tang Xu. The pair previously collaborated on the classic play Rhinoceros in Love, and their deep rapport lends tremendous emotional intensity to their confrontational scenes. In interviews, Li and Tang have acknowledged that the rehearsal schedule was unusually demanding, with extensive physical and martial-arts sequences that posed significant challenges, yet these also added richer dimensions to their characters. Their repeated running and maneuvering in dimly lit scenes externalize the characters’ inner confusion and torment, using pure physicality to convey the oppression and questing spirit of people in a chaotic era.

Zhao Miao's Signature Physical Aesthetics – Opera, Lion Dance, and Martial Arts Weaved into Spy Narrative

Director Zhao Miao is renowned for his highly distinctive physical stage style. Night Walker marks his team’s first original domestic spy work, integrating opera movements, live-action martial arts, and Lingnan lion dance culture seamlessly into the plot, pushing beyond the boundaries of traditional theatre. That is why the company defines the work as a “stage play” rather than a straight “drama”.

Poster from Night Walker. (Chongqing Grande Theatre)

The Lingnan lion dance serves as the spiritual core of the entire production. Its festive, gentle imagery stands in stark, powerful contrast to the brutal reality of the times, wordlessly conveying the characters’ guilt, inner struggle, and fleeting remnants of youthful idealism – delivering a profound theatrical impact.

Cinematic Dark Stage Design Creates an Immersive Spy-Thriller Atmosphere

The production adopts "the darkness before dawn" as its visual core, using extensive low-key lighting, mist, and multimedia effects to recreate the grainy texture of classic black-and-white films and evoke the perilous Shanghai of the 1940s. The stage design is rooted in the concept that "a glimmer of light guides the way; a single spark can start a prairie fire." The interplay of light and shadow, accompanied by 80 minutes of continuous suspenseful scoring interspersed with the old Shanghai classic Eternal Smile, immerses the audience in a nerve-wracking covert battlefield from both sight and sound.

Poster from Night Walker. (Chongqing Grande Theatre)

Tickets officially go on sale on July 9. On the evenings of September 16 and 17, come to the Chongqing Grand Theatre and be among the first to experience the Chongqing premiere of the spy thriller stage play Night Walker – a journey into the hidden frontlines of ideals, friendship, and redemption, brought to life through black-and-white light and shadow and expressive physical storytelling.

(Zhang Xuege, as an intern, also contributed to this report)