Yide Cai
From Shenzhen, China, Yide Cai is a MFA in Playwriting candidate at Boston University, and a graduate of Emory University with a BA in Playwriting & German Studies. He is a poet, translator, and an award-winning playwright with plays that have been selected to festivals such as KCACTF, ITC Competition, ScreenCraft, Kanini Fest, WTP Table Series, and NSYPF. He is a fellow of the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics, and a member of TPOC Producing cohort. He also works as a producer, director and dramaturg in productions worldwide such as with Prague Shakespeare Company, and the premieres of the Chinese version “Dead Poet Society”, “The Book Of Will”, and “Lydia & The Troll”.
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The Rice Eaters
BLURB
The Rice Eaters is a darkly comedic satire on the commodification of art, human ambition, and exploitation in a capitalist world. Set in a Chinese factory where workers mass-produce Van Gogh replicas, the play follows Fan Gao and his co-workers, nicknamed Night Café and Sunflower for the paintings they specialize in, as they navigate systemic greed and personal moral decay. German and Hong Kong employers exploit these workers with ruthless efficiency, while Fan Gao, consumed by ambition, claims his son’s work as his own and begins an affair with a German manager. Betrayal and manipulation ripple through the characters, as Night Café blackmails Gao, and Sunflower, once oppressed, rises to power only to perpetuate the same exploitation. The play intertwines personal drama with sharp political commentary, exposing the cyclical nature of greed and the relentless prioritization of commerce over creativity. With biting humor and resonance, it holds a mirror to global capitalism, encapsulated in the line, “People lie and lie until it is the truth.”