A German theater company has started its China tour with a wordless play. Chen Nan reports.

About 15 years ago, the German theater company Familie Floez was touring Italy. And one day, while its members were sitting in a theater, a new show was born.

"There were the theater technicians preparing for a kind of anniversary celebration for the local firefighters. We sat in the darkness and nobody could see us. We watched the staff setting up the scenery, the sound and everything, and someone brought flowers in," says Hajo Schueler, the co-founder and artistic director of Familie Fl?z.

The members then put together all their experiences about the backstage and devised the 80-minute play, Teatro Delusio, which premiered in Berlin in 2004.

So far, the show has been staged over 500 times.