“Falling into Dreams” is an excerpt from “A Young Wife’s Dream,” a classic piece of Chinese opera. The play tells a story about a young man called Wang Hui, who is forced to join the army shortly marrying Zhang. The newly-married wife waits bitterly for her husband to return but is disappointed day after day. The utter despair turns into dreams. Passages from “The Book of Poetry” interweave throughout the play to depict Zhang’s wandering between dream and reality.

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As technology in various forms like cell phone, computer and the Internet is changing with time, humanity and the cruelty of the war are always the same. “Falling into Dreams,” which takes place in the time of the Three Kingdoms 1,800 years ago, is based on “The Book of Poetry,” an anthology completed 3,000 years ago, and “A Young Wife’s Dream,” a Chinese opera written in 1931, with the latter inspired by “Parting of Newly Weds,” a poem composed by Du Fu in the Tang Dynasty 1,300 years ago. These works share the same theme of absurdity of human existence in the war time. In this play, this dominant theme fades in and out constantly like a leitmotif with variations.

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The creation of “Falling into Dreams” begins with musicians reading “The Book of Poetry” together to better capture the visual image and rhythmic sound in Chinese language, understanding how they excite the imagination and perception, how they create meaning and how they exchange with the listener. The work turns into a “text score,” which is a sonic structure created from literal association, sound and rhythm in addition to a linear time directing the movement of the play. The composer A-duo re-creates with the plot and sonic structure, and the performers give it a visible form on stage.