Inspired by A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, A Stripper Named Desire explores the complex relationship between desire, violence and identity through a localized Chinese adaptation and interdisciplinary artistic practice. This experience is structured in four repetitive five-minute loops, deconstructing the appearance of desire through the gradual stripping of stage elements and exposing the nature of violence’s erosion of the individual (especially the feminine body). 

The combination of traditional Chinese elements and Western designs of soundtrack, set and story maps the collision between traditional morality and consumerism in China’s modernization process. In an exploration of the symbolization of desire and the nature of violence, the costume design places the “stripper” in a Chinese setting, where water sleeves, modified traditional Chinese clothing and bells works together to create a clash of Eastern and Western desires. As the costumes are removed layer by layer, the audience feels the vulnerability and repression behind the desire. The set design is simplified from a complicated choreography with Chinese elements to an empty space. The lighting changes from ambiguous red light to no light to symbolize the process of stripping away the Ding, Li, Ma, Xie 24 appearance of desire and the emergence of violence. Through the change in lighting, the audience is forced to reflect on their own roles and prejudices in the narrative. 

The choreography changes from a seductive dance to a twisted struggle back to the actor’s own body. There is a clear line between the audience and the actor in the sensual dance: the audience is the consumer of desire, and the actor is the carrier of desire. The sensual dance also represents the discipline and expectations of the female body in society. The movements serve as a cover for both desire and violence. This boundary allows the audience to feel safe and at the same time allows them to ignore their own role in the violence. As the movement returns to the actor, the boundaries between audience and actor are broken down and the hypocrisy of the cultural signifier is exposed. The audience is no longer a spectator, but a participant. The audience becomes complicit in the violence. The audience is given fake money, bananas or ketchup before the performance starts. Through the audience’s interaction: the act of “rewarding” and spraying ketchup, the audience actively participates in the objectification and victimization of the strippers. The banana abstractly represents the embodiment of the audience’s desire. The stripper and the fake money represent a metaphor for the consumption of desire. The intervention of ketchup (symbolizing blood) exposes the violent nature behind desire. 

The audience becomes complicit in the violence through the act of squeezing out the ketchup. This design forces the audience to reflect: is violence being inflicted while consuming desire? When the final act reveals that the actors are no longer characters in the story but have returned to themselves, the audience is forced to confront the real-life consequences of their own behavior. This confrontation is not only an indictment of violence, but also a challenge to the audience’s self-perception.

The dichotomy between “outside” and “inside” in Chinese culture is present throughout the play. In Chinese culture, “outside” is equivalent to a person’s external image, which is usually related to one’s perceived social value. The inside represents a person’s true inner world. By gradually stripping away costumes, lights, props and sound, the stage is reduced to its most basic elements. The stripper named Desire goes from full costume to nude, the stage goes from elaborate set to empty space, and etc. The design takes the project from a busy facade to an empty space. The project is stripped from its glamorous facade to reveal the real inner world. And this real inner world will keep all the “desires” made by the audience before. This stripping process symbolizes how the exploitation of women’s bodies by society has shifted from external oppression to internal tearing. This process is also an exploration of the nature of desire. 

The design of the masculine actor playing the feminine body is not only a challenge to traditional notions of gender, but also a discussion on power, violence and cultural discipline. This design blurs gender limits and forces the audience to rethink the social construction of gender roles. Gender is not innate, but is shaped by culture, society and power. The masculine actor’s body is both the object of gaze and the vehicle of violence in the role of the female character. This design reveals that violence can be not only gendered, but also power-based. Both the masculine and the feminine can be the perpetrators or the bearers of violence. 

Through this repetitive experience, we aim to construct a miniature field of social experimentation, forcing the audience to participate in an immersive reflection on the relationship between desire, violence and power. The stripper’s body becomes a battleground for cultural conflict and gender politics, while the “bloodstains” of ketchup are an indictment of collective violence. In the end, the stage is not a performance space, but a moral statement written by the audience and the actors. When the orgy of consumer desire comes to an end, everyone becomes both a perpetrator and a victim.