BARE...but not BARREN

The Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008, like many other international arts festivals worldwide, is not just a showcase of works by internationally acclaimed companies from all corners of the globe. It commissions and presents new works by well-established local artists as well, adding width and depth to a delicious feast of performing arts and allowing for both inter-cultural and intra-cultural discourse.

Two solid examples witnessed by The Nation earlier this month were Zuni Icosahedron's "Tears of Barren Hill" and No Man's Land's "Titus Andronicus", both of which look certain to have life beyond this festival.

Danny Yung, one of Hong Kong's most highly revered theatre directors and cultural advocates, staged multimedia performance "Tears of Barren Hill", which showcased the skills of three professional Chinese opera performers and formed an exciting meeting point not just for various art disciplines, but for west and east as well as traditional andmodern artistic techniques. He also explained why  contemporary artists and audiences should now be rethinking the boundaries between these cultural influences.

The disparity between the conservative and the experimental - the choice between preserving the classical or changing it to bring a new meaning and vibrancy - reminded this reviewer of works by Patravadi Mejudhon and Pichet Klunchun.

Performed in the intimate venue of Hong Kong Cultural Centre's Studio Theatre, the visually sleek and dramatically thought-provoking piece was inspired by the life of the legendary Beijing opera artist Cheng Yanqui who, in the 1930s, quit his illustrious career and journeyed to Hitler-ruled Germany, discovering more of his art when he crossed the cultural border.

The performers moved across an almost-empty stage while a huge off-white backdrop became a screen for video footage as well as Chinese and English surtitles - not translations of the dialogue, but supplementary information and messages.

Ten MTR stations away in the New Territories, another masterpiece was being staged at the Kwai Tsing Theatre, a large, fully equipped standard proscenium playhouse.

Translated and trimmed from the least produced of Shakespeare's plays, "Titus Andronicus" was also performed on a bare stage.

Directed by another veteran, Tang Shu-wing - who's been dubbed by the local media "the alchemist of minimalist theatre", the millennia-old tale of merciless revenge was given fresh power by top-draw ensemble acting.

The play opened and proceeded for the first scene with the entire cast, attired in rehearsal garb of single-colour long-sleeve T-shirts and loose pants, sitting on a row of chairs facing the audience. They were back in this streetwear for the intermission and the curtain call, perhaps prompting us to relate the dramatic incidents we had just witnessed to the world beyond the stage.

Although the play was performed in Cantonese, with English surtitles above the stage, the acting was so engaging that this reviewer often didn't need the translations.

To create various locales, set designer Ricky Chan made efficient use of basics elements. Simply by lowering the whole orchestra pit or putting three chairs upstage, he added new dimensions to the vast and empty space. Enhancing these effects was lighting designer Leo Cheung, who painted this theatrical canvas with a wide spectrum of shades, colouring in the moods and messages of each scene.

We go to the theatre, after all,  to exercise our imagination. What theatre makers do not show or tell becomes a space for the free and creative working of our imagination. Of course, this differs from one audience to the next, but that's the fun part of it.

A bare stage is like a blank canvas. The merest wisp of paint gets spectators' full attention.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in The Nation on Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Tears of Barren Hill photos courtesy of Zuni Icosahedron

Titus Andronicus photos by Cheung Chi Wai,

courtesy of Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Ltd.