Backstage at Beijing's Capital Theatre in a dusty storeroom filled with antiquated video and audio equipment, piles of programmes and flyers from productions long past, Lin Zhaohua pours a cup of oolong tea and sits down to light what will be the first of several cigarettes over the next hour.
While the dishevelled surroundings seem beneath the mainland's premier stage director, it is obvious this is where he feels at home - in the bowels of a theatre, a setting that's been his domain for more than 45 years.
Now 71, the Tianjin-born Lin looks 15 years younger.
Upon meeting Lin, who will direct three performances of Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, it's clear that this is someone who has pushed the boundaries in mainland theatre despite many obstacles.
Originally assigned to the Beijing People's Art Theatre to train as an actor in 1961, he found his forte when he started directing in 1978. In the early '80s, impassioned with the desire to produce experimental theatre, he collaborated with Gao Xingjian, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner for literature, to create the country's Little Theatre Movement.
In 1989, he established the Lin Zhaohua Drama Studio to break free from the stringent government-run theatre system. Today, it is the country's longest-running independent theatre group.