Taiwanese stage and movie actor, dancer Wu Hsing-kuo will bring his internationally acclaimed one-man play “King Lear” to the Nanshan Cultural and Sports Center on Dec. 27.

    Adapted from Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies, the 120-minute “King Lear,” which premiered in 2001, is a combination of Beijing opera and classic Western literature. Wu transitions flawlessly between each character in this athletic and virtuosic telling of a tortured king’s descent into madness.

    The play has toured in more than 20 countries. Combining richly embroidered and colorful costumes, dazzling martial arts, contemporary dance, superb visual effects, and live Chinese music and song, Wu creates what The Guardian calls “One of the best blends of Eastern and Western techniques. In any language this is exciting theater.”

    Wu once said the play is his personal struggle to rediscover his own identity as a Beijing opera actor in the 21st century. “To safeguard tradition but also to allow it to confront modernity, thereby giving birth to a third approach that will extend the future of Beijing opera,” he said.

    Wu was trained in Beijing opera since the age of 11, specializing in wu sheng (male martial) roles. He was admitted with honors into the Theater Department of Chinese Culture University in Taipei, and became the lead dancer of Lin Hwai-min’s Cloud Gate Dance Theater.

    In 1986, he and a group of enthusiastic friends founded the Contemporary Legend Theater in Taipei, seeking to revitalize traditional Chinese theater by adapting Western classical plays to the style and techniques of Beijing Opera. He was the leading actor and director of four Shakespeare adaptations, including the critically acclaimed “Kingdom of Desire,” an adaptation of “Macbeth,” and “King Lear.”

    To support himself and his theater group, Wu starred in a few Hong Kong and Taiwanese commercial movies during the 1990s and in 1992, he won the Hong Kong Film Award for best new actor.

    Time: 8 p.m., Dec. 27

    Tickets: 100-480 yuan

    Reservation: 400-185-8666

    Venue: Nanshan Cultural and Sports Center, 2106 Nanshan Boulevard, Nanshan District (南山区南山大道2106号南山文体中心)

    Metro: Luobao Line, Taoyuan Station (桃园站), Exit B(SD News)