The first day of the month – and technically, the first day of autumn. Well, actually, I think I made that up. In any case, I’m in a dancing mood so it’s off to the Fringe Club Fringe Studio for Dance Front, Dance Back – Dramatic Dance’s show about a group of fleety-footers bringing energy, happiness and inspiration to a boring Hong Kong café. For sure it’ll be a frothy cappuccino of twinkle-toed delights. Oh, it’s on tomorrow night as well. Now just gotta find $99 to get in… Tel: 2521 7251.
Millions of dollars worth of antique toys! Demos of the latest toy technology from Hong Kong and Japan! Collectors’ sales! Special edition pieces! A live demonstration of a remote-controlled helicopter! Cosplay photography! I’m so there. It’s the Toy Open Day at Hitec (G/F), today and tomorrow until 9pm, and only 20 bucks to get in. Am I a big, nerdy kid or what? Tel: 2836 0075
Might also check out the HK Open Badminton Championships at Queen Elizabeth Stadium. Tel: 2504 8318.
Was going to have a lazy Sunday, but have just noticed the Geneé International Ballet Competition Finals are on tonight. The 75-year-old contest’s in HK for the first time – it got stuck in London ’til 2002. How can I miss the best of the world’s teenage dancers? I have to be there, especially for the audience vote for crowd favourite. My vote will definitely be up there for the one looking hottest in tutu or tights. 6pm at the HKAPA Lyric Theatre. Tel: 31 288 288.
Sometime in the next five days, gotta get along to Bangers and Mash. Yeah, so it’s an Australian play but we can’t hold that against it. It must be good because it was sell-out at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival – very curious to see what happens when a cad and womaniser moves in with a Barbra Streisand-loving broken-hearted bachelorette. Shades of Something’s Gotta Give? It’ll be on at the Fringe Club Fringe Studio from 7:30pm each night. Tel: 2521 7251.
When I go to see a film, I look for existentialism, auteurism, and an emphasis on autonomy and self-governance. Joke. But check this out: “Under the Berlin sky, the New German Cinema not only witnesses the reflection of traditional cinema by a new generation of filmmakers, it also reveals their scrutiny of the status quo and hope for the future.” And compare that to the Hollywood pap we’re bombarded with. So no doubt – being the intelligent bloke I am – I’ll be at the New German Cinema of the HK Film Cinema Archive’s ’60’s festival. I mean – Alexander Kluge, Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. How can you say no?
Tel: 2739 2139.
Note: Must check out Phoenixation’s first play, Fairytale Soup. Aside from the fact Hong Kong’s newest theatre group have only been together a matter of weeks, witches are so cool, and this large-cast laugh-a-thon has them in abundance. 8pm at the Fringe Theatre for $75.
Tel: 2521 7251.
Can’t tell anyone I like Westlife’s Flying Without Wings. Thankfully the girlfriend loves me because I bought her a ticket. Have to say though it’s a bit strange at gigs when the female half of the audience spends the concert screaming at full volume “I love you” to which ever band member she thinks is cute – with her arm wrapped around her significant other, who like me probably paid for the ticket. So I’ll be at the AsiaWorld-Arena tonight. Tel: 31 288 288.
Music with handbells? Sweet. A choir of bell-ringers will be playing classics from Passacaglia, Mozart, and Bizet. Carmen in clarion? This I have to hear. It’s the Gloves Handbells choir’s tenth anniversary celebration and that’s a good enough excuse to go see some balls on steel at the HK City Hall Concert Hall tonight at 8pm. Tel: 9268 7170.
Will take a look at FM Theatre Power’s new show Nickel and Dimed some time in the next two days. Never heard of the best-seller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America it’s based on, but apparently there’s a lot of undercover and underground intrigue in the play.
And probing questions about life in
Hong Kong. Sounds fascinating. 8pm at the Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre.
Tel: 3599 9755.
Thought this guy was just another washed-up folkster from the ’70s, but mum tells me he’s actually quite good. Will tottle along to Hall 3 at the HKCEC for the curiosity factor tonight at 8:15pm. Anyone who can make a number one hit out of a song called Me and You and a Dog Named Boo must be worth his salt.
Big men in tight shorts are gearing up for another season of running up and down paddocks cuddling each other to the ground. It’ll kick off today for the G4S Kowloon 10s at the King’s Park Sports Ground, from 1pm – 7pm. Free entry sounds like about the right price. Web: www.hkrugby.com.
I guess Madama Butterfly is the one opera I have to see. Might as well take this chance, then: the cast is international – hey, some are even famous – and Edo de Waart and his band are always good for an earful. And I always was a sucker for a tragic love story. HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tel: 2734 9009.
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