Questioning Heaven is adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear. In this tragedy Wang Hai-ling, the diva also known as "the Queen of Bangzi Opera", is an empress who gets caught up in power struggles of her own making at both family and state levels. In exquisite poetry with unique, subtle metaphors, the play treats kinship and nationhood, egotism and public interest, human relationship and providence, crime and punishment, love and lust, hatred and forgiveness—in short, the eternal themes of humanity and its multifarious ultimate concerns.