words yvonne teh

There is more to the HK Repertory Theatre’s musical comedy than songs and laughs.

Mention the term Family Protection Unit in places like Scotland, Canada, the USA and Mauritius and something very serious comes to mind: in those parts of the world the phrase refers to police units that protect victims of sensitive and emotive crimes. In Hong Kong, however, the only Family Protection Unit (FPU) most people will have heard about, particularly in the period running up to the 36th HK Arts Festival, is a musical comedy which the HK Repertory Theatre’s resident director, Roy Szeto, has co-written and directs.

Although Szeto came up with the name, he says he did so without any knowledge of real Family Protection Units anywhere in the world. Rather, he named it because FPU closely resembles PTU, the acclaimed Johnnie To police drama from a few years back whose evocative music score had been composed by FPU’s music director, composer and lyricist, Chung Chi Wing!

In another tribute to Chung, Szeto has given the music director top billing in the production’s credits. While others might think that the person who initiated the project should be billed above all others, the veteran movie and theatre professional explains, “I think that for a musical, a music director is very important. And he is my friend. I want him to get recognition.” Then, with a laugh, he adds, “It’s my choice. I tell [the marketing department] to do so!”

In talking about his work with Chung, Szeto paints a picture of a true collaboration in which the two both talk and argue a lot. Additionally, while FPU’s process began with Szeto writing a songless script, the intention was that Chung would look at what he had written and figure out what songs could be composed appropriate for the story. Then, after the composer had told him the music he had in mind, Szeto would rewrite the script to include the musical numbers. Chung, three-time winner of the HK Federation of Drama Societies’ Best Original Score award and nominee for multiple film musical score awards, would create the songs before Szeto once again rewrote and polished the script.

And all that hasn’t factored in co-scripter Leung Ka-Kit who, Szeto laughingly says, is as strong in writing as Szeto himself is in rewriting. It is a powerfully collaborative process in which the director of FPU sees his role as being “the bridge” that fills in the gaps and connects people.

Still, for all of the input of the others, Szeto acknowledges that his latest work’s story comes from “very deep within myself”. Perhaps as a result of this, even while FPU has been billed as not only a musical but also a comedy, he admits that the story, told with 21 songs and with family values and issues at heart, is actually very sad. His style, he says, is to talk comically about topics but, although he wants to make audiences laugh first and foremost, many will find “the laughter has a lonely side”.

Szeto’s film work stretches all the way back to the early 1990s (with scriptwriting credits for the multi-genre likes of A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991), The Wicked City (1992) and Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993)) and he talks about how “I love film very much” but he says that in theatre artistes can tell people more about themselves. And in FPU, he has chosen to share certain life experiences along with his new and stronger family orientation – hence the emphasis on family concerns in the play.

He admits that up until just a few years ago, “I didn’t prioritize family. I worked, I worked, I worked – I was always very busy. When my mother called me, I would turn off the phone. But now, I think that moment is important.” Instead of viewing such a call as a distraction, he will answer it and take the time to connect and communicate with his mother. At the same time, however, he is without illusions that this attitude is universally shared. To illustrate, one need look no further than the publicity materials for FPU which have its principal cast members comically attired in diving suits. Why diving suits? Because, Szeto says, “In Cantonese, we say that ‘diving’ means hiding away,” and that, at least initially, is how the characters in FPU habitually react to their family members!

Although some of the publicity notes make it sound like FPU rails against technology because machines play a major part in creating an atmosphere of general alienation in the world, Szeto denies that is the case. Instead, he readily admits to owning a Wii, Xbox 360, a mobile phone and a computer and is more concerned about prevailing attitudes about technology. “The core theme of this play is about abandonment,” he says. “We always abandon people, abandon objects, so easily.” And while it is perhaps easier to see this at play with objects because technology develops so fast and companies change equipment so often, in contemporary society family members are also increasingly scattered and isolated, both socially and physically, from one another.

Szeto has created an FPU of his own to draw attention to and work against this trend; it is a Family Protection Unit that may come with music and laughter yet, perhaps more importantly, has a serious, thought-provoking and heartfelt side to it all the same.

The HK Repertory Theatre’s Family Protection Unit (FPU) will run from March 15 to April 6 at the HKAC Shouson Theatre. Evening shows are at 7:45pm while the March 23 and 30 matinees are at 2:45pm. Tickets, from URBTIX 2734 9009, are $280 to $140 for Friday to Sunday shows and $260 to $120 for Tuesday to Thursday shows.