Highlights of the theater festival include the Chinese production Dr. Godot or Six People Searching for the 18th Camel and Lev Dodin's Uncle Vanya.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Brothers and Sisters is among Dodin's most famous works. In 1975, he started to work with Maly Drama Theater. Since 1982, the 73-year-old has been the theater's artistic director. Brothers and Sisters has been in the theater's repertoire for more than 30 years.

"When we prepared for this year's festival, Lin told me that if we don't have Dodin, then we would fail our audience," says Qian, who visited the Russian theater company several times to invite the director to China. "The fourth time I went, I finally met an old man who looks like Santa Claus - it was Dodin."

Qian watched the play and invited Dodin to China, which the director has never visited.

After his trip in March, Dodin will return to China in September with three other productions written by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov - namely, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya.

Also at the festival, Polish director Krystian Lupa will present Drinker A, which is based on a novel by the late Chinese writer Shi Tiesheng. The play will be staged in Beijing and Tianjin in June.

It opens with the scene of an alcoholic who died seven days earlier. After the voice over ends, the "corpse" stands up and starts to talk to a mouse about his childhood, parents, ex-wife and his life's struggles.

He Bing, an actor from Beijing People's Art Theater, will play the lead role in Drinker A.

"During the past 10 years, I have worked only with Lin Zhaohua. When he told me that Lupa was going to turn the novel into a play, I was tempted by the idea," says He. "I am nearly 50 and I have been trying to free myself on the stage all the time. I am looking forward to this collaboration."

For Lupa, who had never read Shi's novels, the idea was both interesting and challenging.