Xiqu

A programming concept this year is to invite famous performers to play the “Twin Actors and Single Actress” repertoires. Hence, The Lady’s Sash, written by Tang Ti-sheng, was chosen. With superb acting by Lee Lung, Wan Fai-yin Christina and Yuen Siu-fai, it is definitely a show not to be missed.

Synopsis
A military officer, Zhao Shizhen, is married to Lin Ruxiang. But he is by nature impulsive, suspicious and gets jealous easily. When his young son, Xilang, inadvertently leaves his mother’s sash in his teacher Lu Shike’s room, Zhao suspects his wife of having an affair with Lu. Although the misunderstanding is cleared later, Shike is already under the impression that Ruxiang is not a woman of chastity. He leaves the Zhao residence with a note stating the cause.

Zhao is taking a trip to investigate a case, but on the way, he happens to check into an inn run by gangsters. When a gangster tries to break into his room at night, Zhao subdues him. He wants to tie him up, and without thinking, he uses his wife’s sash that he carries on him. He cuts the gangster’s head and takes it with him before he goes. When the yamen come to investigate, the officers mistakenly believe that Zhao is the one who got killed, and with the sash as evidence, they bring Ruxiang in and charge her for murdering her husband. Ruxiang’s foster mother brings Ruxiang’s son, Xilang, to the yamen in a bid to prove her innocent. But the presiding judge happens to be no other than Lu Shike, the former teacher, who has plucked the laurels in the civil examination and has been appointed a magistrate. Without any examination into details, Lu decides that Ruxiang is guilty and sentences her to be executed. But he takes pity on the boy and takes him home to raise as his own. Later, Zhao returns to his home town, now made a high official. He happens to meet Lu, and is astounded by the news that Ruxiang is dead. He goes to her grave and weeps. It so happens that Ruxiang had escaped with the help of a prison warden on that fatal day. Everyone comes together at the grave where she is supposed to lie, and discover the truth. The Zhao family is happily reunited.