Until March 3
She used to be a magazine writer and editor but Pat York has gained more fame as a fine arts photographer. Her subjects include dissected cadavers, but celebrities – Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, Federico Fellini, Andy Warhol, Whoopi Goldberg, Anthony Hopkins and Barbara Streisand as well as her actor husband, Michael, among them – are the focus of Imaging & Imagining: The Film World of Pat York, the photographic exhibition on display at the HK Film Archive’s Exhibition Hall until Monday, March 3. The travelling display, which opened at Los Angeles’ Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, comprises over 150 unique photographs of a whole host of very recognizable faces often looking far more relaxed than one usually sees them. Exhibition hours are 10am to 8pm every day except Thursdays. Admission is free.

Until March 9
Renowned artist cum educator Ho Chat-yuen (1899-1970) may have been a Guangdong native who studied in Guangzhou but he mainly worked and lived in Hong Kong. So it makes sense that the Lingnan School master’s descendants chose a Fragrant Harbour art museum to be the recipient of their bequest of 84 of Ho’s works, some 60 of which are on display until March 9 at the HK Museum of Art. An Inheritance of Virtuosity: Donated Chinese Paintings of Ho Chat-yuen comprises creations – from flower-and-bird compositions to larger landscape paintings – from a career spanning over half a century. Opening hours for the HK Museum of Art is 10am to 6pm from Sunday to Wednesday and also on Fridays, and 10am to 8pm on Saturday. Admission to the museum is $10 on all days except Wednesday when it is free.

Until March 19
Lauded by TIME Asia as “an Anglophone literary festival of real clout”, The Man HK International Literary Festival strives to present a programme of literary lunches, discussions, readings, writing workshops and such that allows readers and writers – some of whom are very distinguished indeed – of all ages to interact. It was launched in 2001 as a weekend event but participants at this year’s much bigger festival include cartoonist Larry Feign (Lily Wong) as well as authors Ian McEwan (The Comfort of Strangers; Atonement), Yiyun Li (A Thousand Years of Good Prayers), Tan Twan Eng (The Gift of Rain) and Colin Thubron (Behind the Wall: A Journey Through China). For ticketing and further details about individual events, go to www.festival.org.hk/2008a/

Saturday, March 1
A classical pianist considered for some time now to be among the best living interpreters of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, Budapest-born András Schiff began a series of concerts in 2004 that saw him playing all 32 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas in the order of their composition. The programme for the András Schiff Piano Recital on Saturday, March 1, includes two of those Beethoven sonatas along with Schumann’s Papillons, Opus 2, and Fantasy, Opus 17. The concert will commence at 8pm at the HK City Hall’s Concert Hall. Tickets cost $380 to $180 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

March 4-8
Before he became an award-winning playwright, Educating Rita’s Willy Russell worked for a time – like his modern-day Pygmalion story’s bubbly hairstylist protagonist – as a hairdresser. That prompted Andy Burt, the director of the Hong Kong production of this popular play, to suggest, “When [Rita]’s talking about reducing a woman’s hair to an inch of stubble, there’s an uncomfortable feeling that [Russell] actually managed to do that at some stage by accident!” And, also, that this Royal Shakespeare Company-commissioned work focusing on the friendship that develops between an English professor and his mature student will appeal to both non-university graduates and graduates alike. The play will run from March 4 to 8 at the HK Arts Centre’s McAulay Studio Theatre. Performances begin at 8pm each evening. Tickets are $220 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

March 7-9
Ethnic Mongolian music and dance are on show at The Grassland, Our Heaven – A Showcase of Mongolian Folk Dance co-presented by the Inner Mongolia National Song and Dance Opera Troupe, that autonomous region’s largest professional performing arts group. Also on show is the unique traditional culture of the people of Inner Mongolia, the dances in this extravaganza’s programme commemorating the entire human cycle of Mongolian life, from birth to death and burial. All performances will start at 8pm but take place at different venues: the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre’s Theatre on Friday, March 7; the Ko Shan Theatre on Saturday, March 8; and the Tsuen Wan Town Hall’s Auditorium on Sunday, March 9. Tickets are $160 to $90 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

Ibsen visits Hong Kong and speaks in Putonghua (with English and Chinese surtitles) as Mainland China’s Lin Zhaohua Theatre Studio presents The Master Builder, an intense, psychological drama widely considered to be the celebrated Norwegian playwright’s most autobiographical work. With Mainland Chinese household favourite Pu Cunxin as aging architect Halvard Solness and the acclaimed Tao Hong as Hilde Wangel, the young woman he promised a kingdom to when she was just 12 years old, this production at the HKAPA’s Lyric Theatre starts at 8pm from March 7 to 9. Tickets are $260 to $140 from URBTIX, 2734 9009 and HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.

True to its name, the Urban Nomad has taken to moving from city to city. Founded in Taipei in 2002, the underground and alternative film festival offers a thought-provoking programme that includes a collection of socially conscious documentaries from Taiwan, the HKSAR and other parts of Southeast Asia on Friday, March 7; Daniel Gordon’s defector documentary Crossing the Line on Saturday, March 8; and the provocatively titled – if nothing else! – Pervert’s Guide to Cinema on Sunday, March 9. The Urban Nomad Hong Kong film festival screenings will be at the Videotage in To Kwa Wan and Wanchai’s old – and back in use for one night only! – Imperial Cinema and KLUUBB. The suggested donation for attendees is $30. For more times and venues for specific screenings see the listings or e-mail contact@videotage.org.hk

March 7-11
A staple of the standard operatic repertoire pretty much right from its triumphant world premiere in Venice in 1851, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto will be staged from March 7 to 11 as part of the 36th HK Arts Festival by a 150-strong troupe of players from the Teatro Regio di Parma. Inspired by a Victor Hugo play entitled Le Roi S’Amuse, this popular opera tells the dramatic tale of a court jester who, after successfully tricking the Duke of Mantua, becomes embroiled in a deadly curse that seals his fate and that of his beloved daughter Gilda. The performances are set to begin at 7:30pm each evening at the HK Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre. Tickets are $1,280 to $250 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

How hotly anticipated is Neil Bute’s The Shape of Things, the dark account of the power games men and women play that marks the return to the stage of director Gabriel Lee and celebrated actress Louisa So? Let’s just say it seems as if every time we check the HK Arts Festival website, extra shows have been added, so that this Cantonese production (complete with English surtitles) will now run from March 7 through to 17 at the HK Cultural Centre’s Studio Theatre! Showtime (except for March 12) is at 7:45pm while the matinee performances on March 8, 9, 15 and 16 commence at 3pm. Tickets are $340 to $100 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.