January 18-21
Originally premiered in 1958, Teahouse, by the famous Chinese writer Lao She, is being staged by the Beijing People’s Art Theatre to commemorate the 100th birthday of Jiao Juyin, late chief director of the company responsible for the play’s original production. The play itself is about the people who frequent a teahouse to discuss the current affairs and topical issues of their changing times. The three acts span 50 years of political and social turmoil in China, starting with the overthrow of the Qing government in 1898. Watch it at the Kwai Tsing Theatre’s Auditorium at 7:30pm on January 18-20 and 2:30pm on January 21. Tickets range from $100-$280, and are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009. Please note this performance is in Putonghua with Cantonese and English surtitles.

Neil Simon’s comedy Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical story set in New York in 1937 of a 15-year-old Russian-Jewish boy in the Great Depression. With his sexual awakening comes numerous family problems. Macau’s Conservatory is bringing the play to Hong Kong as part of the Chinese Drama Festival. Shows will be at Sai
Wan Ho Civic Centre on January 19 at 8pm and 3pm on January 20 and 21. Tickets are $100 and $120 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

January 20-21
A scholar persecuted by Japanese pirates is saved by the abbot of the Shaolin Temple. The scholar becomes a monk and learns the martial arts, later becoming a great master. You may be forgiven for thinking we are leading into Stephen Chow’s The God of Cookery, but Shaolin in the Wind is not all that funny. It is a real action dance drama which will bring a great range of Shaolin martial arts like qinggong (the art of physical speed) and tietouggong (the art of the iron head) to the stage. This performance by Zheng Song and Dance Theatre has won gold awards in dance drama, direction, performance and costume design in the Lotus Award Competition, the Oscars of performing art in China. With almost a hundred performers on stage, Shaolin in the Wind should be nothing if not spectacular. Shows are on January 20 and 21 at Sha Tin Town Hall. Tickets at $260, $180 and $100 are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

January 20-21
So you like the soundtrack to E.T.? And Star Wars? Well, you’re in luck. Anthony Inglis, the British conductor famed for his ability to involve audiences in a performance, will be conducting familiar tunes from all your favourite movies, like Gladiator and Mission Impossible, in concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. It’s showtime on January 20 at 8pm at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium
and January 21 at the Tuen Mun Town Hall Auditorium. Tickets range from $80-$160 and are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

January 26-27
Sexual politics and feminist ideas from the pen of a woman of the 1890s? That and other modern ideologies are just what Charlotte Perkins Gilman tackled in The Yellow Wallpaper, a short novel about a woman undergoing a mental breakdown. The tale is semi-autobiographical and many feminist thinkers still hail this work as universal and relevant today. Theatre Action have adapted the novella for the stage as
part of the City Festival at the Fringe Club’s Fringe Studio at 8pm, and on Saturday afternoon at 3pm. Tickets are $99 and are available from HK Ticketing 31 288 288.

The HK Philharmonic joins with one of the greatest dramatic sopranos of our time for a concert of Wagner’s works. Elizabeth Connell will sing such favourites as Ride of the Valkyries and the Funeral March and Immolation scene from The Twilight of the Gods and the HKPO will also performed a new orchestral suite of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Wagner’s only comedic opera. Join Elizabeth Connell, Edo de Waart and the HKPO at 8pm at the HK Cultural Centre’s Concert Hall. Tickets range from $100-$400 and are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

You wouldn’t think that John Lennon’s Imagine could be an inspiration for a flamenco dancer, but Maria Pages, an award-winning choreographer, has set her piece Songs Before a War to traditional flamenco music, blues and Imagine. The entire piece was inspired by a documentary film banned by the Franco regime in Spain. Although she has had her own dance company since 1990, Pages came to the world’s attention in Michael Flatley’s Riverdance in 1995. Since then she has performed in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Songs Before a War dances out at the HK City Hall’s Concert Hall at 8pm. Tickets range from $120-$320 and are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.