A handsome young architect successfully juggles living with three flight attendants from different airlines by wining and dining them according to their work schedules.
But one day, Boeing's new, faster line of jets make all three airlines change their flight schedules, and the three ladies arrive at his apartment at the same time.
Will the playboy's days of romance be going, going... gone?
The comedy Boeing Boeing, which will run at the Chang'an Theatre from March 5 to 9 and 11 to 19, will give you the answer.
Translated and directed by Wei Xiaoping, the play is adapted from French playwright Marc Camoletti's 1960 classic farce, also called Boeing Boeing.
In the original play, Bernard Lawrence is a US newspaper correspondent based in Paris who has devised a sophisticated timetable to organize his three ongoing love affairs.
His girlfriends are all flight attendants, working for Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa respectively. They all spend the night at Bernard's apartment whenever they stop over in Paris and each of them believes she is the only one, and so accordingly they must never meet.
Bertha, Bernard's faithful housekeeper, has a hard time managing his affairs, preparing special diets for each of them, rearranging photographs and, generally, keeping track of what is going on.
However, Bernard's life is turned upside down when all three airlines change their schedules and an old friend of his arrives unexpectedly, joining the set in a hilarious whirl of confusion and matchmaking.
Playwright Marc Camoletti was born in Geneva to Italian parents, but has lived most of his life in Paris. His first love was painting, but he had always loved the theatre and started writing plays.
In a career spanning over 30 years, Camoletti has gained worldwide acclaim for his work.
In Paris alone, he calculated that 240 actors have appeared in 15 of his plays in 11 different theatres over 32 years, totalling 15,000 performances to date.
Among all his works, Boeing Boeing is the most well-known. The hit comedy ran for seven years at the Apollo Theatre in London.
It was also a film under the same title by Paramount directed by John Rich in 1965.
Wei said he was inspired when he watched the play in Paris in 1996. The play had run for some 10,000 shows but was still drawing audiences at that time.
"I was just curious about how a play could run for over three decades in 25 countries," said Wei, a graduate from the China Central Academy of Drama. "But as I was seated in the theatre, I felt it was a great draw and after that I decided to bring it to Chinese theatre."
To make it easier for Chinese audiences to enjoy, Wei translated the script and localized the story. In the Chinese version of Boeing Boeing, the hero is a Hong Kong-based architect named Luo Hang and his three stewardesses serve three Asian airlines.
Zhu Shimao, one of China's well-known actors portrays the playboy and his three lovers are played by Shi Chunling, Jin Lili and Li Mei.
All of the cast are talented comedians who flesh out the well-written, translated and relocated characters.
Meng Danfeng, acting in the supporting role of the reliable, down-to-earth maid who never forgets to change the photographs in the bedroom, almost steals the limelight with her impeccable deadpan expressions.
(China Daily February 20, 2004)
