Australia – Theater Matters, May 09, 2026
1154 Days is a gripping and unexpectedly revealing live performance by journalist Cheng Lei, premiering at Arts House in the North Melbourne Town Hall from 28 to 31 May.
Blending storytelling with live-cinematic theatre, 1154 Days transforms one woman’s real-life experience of detention in China into a powerful, thought-provoking and personal story for the stage.
In August 2020, while working in Beijing, Lei was called into work and met by state security officers. Within hours, she was blindfolded and taken to a secret location. What followed were 1154 days cut off from her children, family and the outside world.
For the first six months, Lei was held under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), a system of detention defined by isolation, surveillance and silence. With limited insight into what occurs inside these facilities, 1154 Days offers a rare and vivid window into that hidden world.
Performed by Lei herself, the work reveals how the mind adapts, resists and even creates under pressure. In isolation, she built television programs in her head, devised memory games and found unexpected ways to connect with herself, others and even with her captors.
Moments of warmth and dark humour thread through the performance.
