Based on Liu Er’s Lao Can‘s Travels and Debussy’s chamber and orchestral music, Lao Can Impression explores the cultural exchange between east and west by combining Chinese and western approaches to music and drama.

Three musicians highlight the eastern influences in Debussy’s music while two actors tell Liu’s story about westernisation in China in the 1900s. By fusing the two together, the piece looks at modernisation and how we can move forward by using our past, not destroying it.

The project is generously supported by The Fenton Arts Trust.