Thunderstorm (play)

The subject matter of Thunderstorm is the disastrous effects of rigid traditionalism and hypocrisy on the wealthy, modern, somewhat Westernized Zhou family.

Lu Gui and his daughter Sifeng, both servants of the Zhou household, are seen conversing in the drawing room.

Lu Gui tells Sifeng about a secret affair between the old master's wife Fanyi and her stepson Zhou Ping.

Puyuan commands Fanyi to drink a traditional Chinese medicine concoction that he had ordered for her to cure her "mental imbalance".

In Puyuan's words, she is Zhou Ping's birth mother who supposedly died many years ago.

Act II In the afternoon, Zhou Ping secretly meets Sifeng in the drawing room and tells her of his plans to leave his home permanently to work at his father's business in the country.

Fanyi enters after Sifeng has left and attempts to dissuade Ping from leaving the house and abandoning her.

Sifeng's mother Mrs Lu, a kind and beautiful woman, arrives for her appointment with Fanyi.

Mrs Lu recognises herself in the photograph, implying that she is Shiping, Zhou Ping's birth mother and Puyuan's ex-wife.

Mrs Lu calmly tells him that although Shiping attempted suicide after being driven out of the Zhou family and leaving her first child (Zhou Ping) behind, she survived, gave birth to her and Puyuan's second son soon afterwards and married a poor man, who later became the father of her daughter.

Puyuan offers her money to atone for his sins, but she refuses and says she had decided to leave the city with her husband and daughter.

Puyuan also learns from Shiping that their second son Lu Dahai is now working at his mine and is a leader in the workers' protests.

Lu Dahai is furious and insults Puyuan but is punched by Zhou Ping and pushed away by the servants.

Chong naively tries to explain his sympathy for the lower classes and offers to shake hands with Dahai.

Having had her hopes shattered once more, Fanyi abandons all maternal sentiments and furiously tells everyone of her affair with Ping and his betrayal.

As Puyuan, Fanyi and Mrs Lu try to comprehend the loss of their children, a gunshot is heard as Zhou Ping commits suicide.

Epilogue Back in the hospital ten years later, old Mr Zhou (Puyuan) asks a nun about the old woman (Mrs Lu).

He tells the nun that he had been searching for the old woman's son Lu Dahai for ten years with no result.

Although it is undisputed that the prodigious reputation achieved by Thunderstorm was due in large part to its scandalous public airing of the topic of incest, and many people have pointed out not inconsiderable technical imperfections in its structure, Thunderstorm is nevertheless considered to be a milestone in China's modern theatrical ascendancy.

In particular, Thunderstorm bears a strong resemblance in plot, themes, characterization, pacing and tone to the plays of Henrik Ibsen.

[7] For instance, Thunderstorm shares with Ibsen's Ghosts elements such as a respected patriarch who has, in fact, impregnated his servant, a romance between his children (who do not know that they are half-siblings), and a climactic revelation of this situation in the play.

More generally, the book relates to the genre of classical tragedy, particularly the Oedipus cycle and other plays of Sophocles.

Thunderstorm was published in 1958 in an English translation by Wang Tso-liang and A.C. Barnes by Foreign Languages Press (Beijing).

In 1995, Director Ho Yi produced a Cantonese film version in, with the personal blessing of the playwright.

This very loose adaptation set the action in the imperial court of the late Tang dynasty, with the Emperor in the place of Puyuan.

In 2012 Wang Chong directed Thunderstorm 2.0, a multimedia performance using four cameras and real-time editing, in Trojan House, Beijing.

The adaptation, authorised by Cao Yu's family, cut 99% of the original text and only three major characters remained.

In 2019, THVL made a film adaptation called Tiếng sét trong mưa [vi] (Thunder in the rain).

Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. of Loyola Marymount University stated that this inclusion was "I believe, for the first time" Thunderstorm was included in an anthology.