“RHINOCEROS in Love,” the landmark Chinese play that first thundered onto the Beijing stage in 1999, returns to Shenzhen for two nights this month.

Written by Liao Yimei and directed by Meng Jinghui, the drama resists tidy romantic narratives. At its center is Ma Lu, a humble rhinoceros keeper whose devotion to the capricious, alluring Ming Ming is absolute. Ming Ming loves another, treats Ma Lu as a shadow of that other, and one night of abandonment — when her lover fails to arrive for a promised birthday — turns her grief toward Ma Lu. By dawn she is cold again, and Ma Lu is left grappling with an unforgiving truth.

The story refuses conventional resolution. Ma Lu reshapes himself in a desperate bid for Ming Ming’s love; a sudden monetary windfall seems to promise possibility, only to meet persistent rejection. A comic, chaotic episode — featuring a peddler nicknamed “Toothbrush” and two young women, Honghong and Lili — collapses romantic theory into farce. The play exposes the darker architecture of feeling: obsession, solitude, and the relentless projection of self onto another.

What makes “Rhinoceros in Love” enduring is its refusal to sanctify an idealized love. Its spare, often brutal poetry strips devotion down to its mechanics: self-deception, stubbornness, and the refusal to be domesticated by practical logic. In an era when love is coached and relationships are commodified, the play’s “persistence in the face of futility” reads as an insurgent act — an antidote to cultural numbness and an open question about the value of idealism.

Staging is minimal but emotionally vast; the narrative flirts with absurdity while its moral seriousness anchors it. Each production becomes an encounter — posing questions rather than handing answers — so that every audience hears the same ache refracted anew. This revival is presented by Meng Jinghui Theater Studio’s flagship Konghua Group, known for integrating song, movement, and acting into a unified theatrical force. With a reputation for explosive onstage energy and incisive social critique, Konghua promises to make “Rhinoceros in Love” feel less like a classic remembered and more like an event happening now.

Time: 8 p.m., April 10; 3 p.m., April 11

Venue: Guangming Culture and Arts Center, Guangming District (光明文化艺术中心)

Metro: Line 6 to Fenghuang Town Station (凤凰城站), Exit B(Tang Li)