Chinese actress Chen Shu plays the lead role in an adaptation of The Lady from the Sea, which is now on its second round of a national tour in China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Independent spirit

Before Ellida, Chen played Chen Bailu, an alluring courtesan, in the play Sunrise, which was adapted from a play by renowned Chinese playwright Cao Yu (1910-96), in 2008, and the following year Jane Eyre in an eponymous Chinese play based on a novel by the English writer Charlotte Bronte.

"It's been almost 10 years since I performed in a play. I was waiting for a role, which was imaginative and challenging, and Ellida was the one," says Chen.

Ellida is regarded as "one of Ibsen's most complex creations", who struggles between her duty to her husband and the honesty she has to herself.

However, Chen's decision to play the role was not supported by people around her, such as her colleagues and peers.

It's apparent that performing in a play is not a "clever choice" compared to starring in a TV drama or a film, for those who value the financial returns and exposure. Even in theater, the play is not considered exceptional.

Compared with Ibsen's other masterpieces, such as A Doll's House, which established the playwright as "the father of realism", The Lady from the Sea is not performed frequently and few adaptations have received positive reviews.

But Chen did not hesitate to take the role.

"When Ibsen wrote The Lady from the Sea, he was 60 years old. During his exile in Germany and Italy he longed for the sea," she says.

In his preliminary notes for the play, Ibsen wrote: "The sea has a power of attraction over me. I long for the sea. I am bound by the sea and dependent on it. I must return to it."

At the age of 40, Chen says it seems to be the right time for her to play the role.

"As an actress, I have tried various roles. Now, I am interested in those that break the traditional images of women - 'weak and obedient'. Ellida, for example, is spiritually strong," she says.

Chen was born in Huanggang, Hubei province. Her father was a renowned dancer, her mother played the flute and piano, and her elder brother is a composer.

Chen learned traditional Chinese dance from a young age and later came to Beijing to study at the Beijing Dance Academy.

After seven years of dancing with the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble, she was enrolled to study at the Central Academy of Drama, where she graduated in 2001 with a major in acting. The same year, she started working at the National Theater of China.