Most people are familiar with the torturous pilgrimage of the monk Xuanzang and his trio of half-demonic apprentices to fetch the Buddhist sutras from India – if not from the great Chinese novel, at least through the TV series, Monkey. In that series, although the monk (Tripitaka to Westerners) might have been an ethereal figure on a white horse, his student Monkey was wily, magical, martial-arts in-your-face fun. But in his production of Journey to the West for the opening of this year’s Chinese Drama Festival, Chan Suk-yi is not so concerned with the exploits of the apish disciple than the journey’s psychological effects on the Buddhist monk. Xuanzang has returned, with the Buddhist scriptures, to fame and fortune in China. How will he, dedicated to renounce the attractions of the world, cope with its most alluring temptations? Suk-yi avoids meeting the question psychologically head on, but gives it a Hong Kong feel with a comic touch. “There will be clown- and buffoon-like figures in the show. These characters
will mock the dark side of Xuanzang and the absurdity of reality, like the side-show in Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris,” he says.

Which glances at Chan’s theory that Hong Kong drama is a hybrid born out of the meeting between East and West. He points out that many dramatists with a Chinese background studied theatre abroad, where they were influenced by Western playwrights like Tennessee Williams and, of course, Shakespeare.

Other dramaturges share the belief. Hong Kong Repertory Theatre’s latest offering, Dust and Dawn, will be the festival’s finale. When writer and co-director Paul Poon met Fredric Mao, artistic director at HK Repertory, three years ago, they found a mutual interest in martial arts novels. “During a brainstorming session, we realized there is a great variety of performances on the local scene, but not much based on traditional stuff like the martial arts novel,” says Poon. So Dust and Dawn came to be – inspired by Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, a novel published in the ’60s by the legendary
Jin Yong.

To add reality, actors took basic kung fu workshops before rehearsals started. But for Poon the intent of martial arts is more to the point; a martial arts story with an historical background should reflect the world today. “The story is set during the chaotic last years of the Yuen dynasty,” he points out, “and is about how people position themselves and their value judgments living in a time like that. Traditionally heroic figures are essential in martial arts novels, but this time there will be less heroism, but more humanity.”

Fredric Mao, five times Best Director winner in the Hong Kong Drama Awards and co-director of the play, agrees the spirit of martial arts is the show’s key element. But while Poon, whose recent productions include Man of la Tiger and Night and Dream in the South, is well known for dark humour and a free-flowing story-telling style (which often translates to a ‘you either love it or hate it’ reaction), Mao hopes audiences will find a more stable narrative approach under his direction.

More experimental work can also be found in Windmill Grass Theatre’s Pine Tree Under the Moon, a Chinese ghost story narrated in Chinese opera tempered by Japanese Noh. Noh is chanted drama with music, often using masks, reliant on slow, subtle expression instead of heady action to create tension. Pine Tree Under the Moon marries the Japanese form with the four major skills ­– singing, acting, speech and gymnastics – of traditional Chinese opera. Director Chan Chu-hei says that consequentially the show has greater depth and an exploratory texture and, judging from reactions to performances at the Macau Fringe Festival in 2003, appeals to a more mature audience.

However, Shaw Mei Kwan, cast in both the 2003 and current runs, feels that both she and the show have mellowed over the years. “There were some emotions I couldn’t realise in the first run. But after the years, I feel more at peace and can put more effort into the aesthetic of the performance,” she says. Which indicates she didn’t take the theme of Pine Tree Under the Moon too much to heart. “It’s about being persistent,” she says, “and unable to let things go. I guess everybody can relate that to themselves.”

Fourteen theatre groups from four regions will be presenting 15 dramas as well as seminars and exhibitions in the festival, which also marks the centennial of Chinese drama. Previously the biennial festival has been hosted by Taipei, Macau and Kunming, each of which will be represented on our stages this year. David Auburn’s Proof comes in an adaptation by Greenray Theatre from Taiwan – the play about the brilliant but troubled daughter of a recently deceased insane mathematical genius won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Macau’s Conservatory brings us a production by another Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Neil Simon. Brighton Beach Memoirs is Simon’s semi-autobiographical story of a Jewish boy’s changing interactions with his family as he grows up and awakens sexually. Perhaps most interesting, though, will be Beijing People’s Art Theatre’s Teahouse, a script by Lao She which spans 50 years from the corrupt Qing Dynasty in 1898, through the fight for power when China became a republic, to the Kuomintang’s oppression after the war of resistance against Japan. The whole panorama is drawn through the lives of the owner and patrons of a teahouse in Beijing.

Other local productions include Drama Gallery’s Jack and Jackie, Dramaholics’
Hands, Cinematic Theatre’s Missing Sight, HKAPA’s Princess Chang Ping and Heaven Shaking Bow, Pants Production’s Whatever Che Whosoever Guevara and Theatre Space’s adaptation of Hugh Leonard’s Da. For full festival details, see listing on page 34.

Journey to the West, Dust and Dawn and Pine Tree Under the Moon (all in Cantonese with English subtitles) will be performed throughout the 6th Chinese Drama Festival from January 4 to February 4. For show dates and ticket prices, please check our listings for details or visit http://www.hwxj2007.org.