bc magazine

Kennedy

stylus - Kennedy - 2016

Written by the award-winning Spanish poet José Manuel Sevilla who penned the Hong Kong production of The Bridge in 2011, Kennedy is a noirish tale of loss and redemption set in late 20th Century Barcelona. Recently released from prison, Kennedy seeks his sister, Beatriz. Both escape from the reality of their lives into philosophical flights of fancy that keep the shadows at bay.

This Stylus Productions staging of Kennedy is the world premiere of Sevilla’s latest work.

José Manuel Sevilla is a Barcelona born poet living in Hong Kong who has published several volumes of poetry including From the Limits of Paradise (1991), Contiguous Traject (1993), Alicia in Ikea’s Catalogue (2004) and Ashes of Auschwitz and Eighteen Dogs (2009). He founded ‘Poets against AIDS’ in Spain and, while living in Mexico, Sevilla started the photograph collection Street Language, which was exhibited at the Fringe Club in 2004.

Stylus Productions was founded in 2006 by Adam Harris; their previous shows include The Rocky Horror Show (2006 & 2010), the world premiere in English of The Bridge (2011, also by the award-winning Spanish poet José Manuel Sevilla), Macbeth (2014), Chimes of Freedom (2009) and last year’s Medea.

WARNING: This show includes adult language and themes.

Kennedy
Date: 8pm, 17-19 March, 2016
Venue: HK Arts Centre, McAulay Studio
Tickets: $200/$180 from Urbtix

Into the Woods

Stephen Sondheim’s epic musical Into the Woods brings together many of the Grimm brothers’ best known fairytales including Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood. Framed by a moving story about a childless couple who long to have a family of their own. With a challenging and captivating score, dark comedy and physical theatre, Face Productions brings an exciting new edge to this classic Broadway and West End musical.

When the baker and his wife are cursed to be childless by the witch from next door, the only way to break her spell is to venture into the woods to find four mysterious ingredients. With a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold, they must create a potion to appease the Witch and restore her former beauty. On their way, they cross paths with familiar characters: each with a wish of their own. Who will make it out of the woods alive? And will we find truth in the old adage of happily ever after?

Into the Woods opened on Broadway in November 1987 to massive critical acclaim winning several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical. While Disney’s 2014 film adaptation, directed by Rob Marshall and featuring an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Anna Kendrick, earned US$212 million worldwide, as well as three Academy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.

Face Productions – whose recent productions include Hairspray (2013), Footloose (2014), and Legally Blonde (2015) – revival has Conor O’Grady at the Director’s helm, with Roy Rolloda and Jessica Peralta as the Baker and Baker’s Wife respectively, Candice Caalsen as the Witch, and Sophie Connell as Little Red Riding Hood. Choreographed by Claire Johnson, with Enrico Narvaez as Musical Director, the show features many professional and veteran performers, a live band, and some of the highest calibre community theatre performers in Hong Kong.

Cast
Baker: Roy Rolloda
Baker’s Wife: Jessica Peralta
Witch: Candice Caalsen
Little Red Riding Hood: Sophie Connell

Director: Conor O’Grady
Choreographer: Claire Johnson
Musical Director: Enrico Narvaez

Into the Woods
Date: 4-7 February, 2016
Venue: HK City Hall, Theatre
Tickets: $395 from Urbtix
More info:
4-6 February – 8pm
7 February – 7:30pm

Into the Woods Junior
Face Academy: $275
6–7 February – 10.30am and 2.30pm

Into the Woods

Cast
Baker: Roy Rolloda
Baker’s Wife: Jessica Peralta
Witch: Candice Caalsen
Little Red Riding Hood: Sophie Connell

Director: Conor O’Grady
Choreographer: Claire Johnson
Musical Director: Enrico Narvaez

Into the Woods
Date: 4-7 February, 2016
Venue: HK City Hall, Theatre
Tickets: $395 from Urbtix
More info:
4-6 February – 8pm
7 February – 7:30pm

Into the Woods Junior
Face Academy: $275
6–7 February – 10.30am and 2.30pm

Udderbelly Festival – 4 December, 2015 – 14 February, 2016

It’ll be interesting to see over the next couple of months if the ‘there’s nothing to do in Hong Kong’ brigade will open their wallets to support the inaugural Udderbelly Festival Hong Kong which takes place at the Central Harbourfront event space from the 4 December-14 February. Centered around the iconic Udderbelly, a 410-seat pop-up theatre in the shape of an upturned cow (specially brought to Hong Kong from the UK) the festival features a smorgasbord of shows and will sit alongside The AIA Great European Carnival. The Udderbelly cowshed will be full of entertainment, music, food, comedy (lots of comedy) and family fun throughout the holiday season. Udderbelly has proved a huge hit with audiences at the Edinburgh Festival for over 10 years and on London’s South Bank for the past seven.

Udderbelly Festival
Date: 4 December, 2015 – 14 February, 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: see individual event
More info:
Check the events diary for schedule

Art School Musical

Edward Lam Dance Theatre is returning to Macao with Art School Musical, a thought provoking reflection about love and art. The Hong Kong director and playwright reinvents The Butterfly Lovers’ legend, a classic Chinese work frequently adapted into a diversity of performing expressions. Premiered last May, the piece is Lam’s vibrant, humorous and personal vision tackling a variety of themes, from gender issues to the essence of ingenuity.

Featuring Macao’s rising star Jordan Cheng, the cast for this new interpretation includes 18 actors, mostly from Taiwan and Hong Kong, in a wonderfully scored version that resets the classic tale into a contemporary school of arts. Providing thoughtful answers to some of life’s big questions, the story develops from a triangular relationship between students, two boys and a girl, all struggling with their own reality.

Art School Musical
Edward Lam Dance Theatre
Date: 25-27 December, 2015
Venue: Macao Cultural Centre, Grand Auditorium
Tickets: MOP$300, $250, $200, $150 from MacauTicket
More info:
25-26 December- 7:30pm
27 December – 2:30pm

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot’s seminal poem, The Waste Land, comes to life in this new, dramatic adaptation.

Internationally renowned cellist David Pereira teams up with actor and Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Julian Lamb to bring you a fusion of music and spoken word which will appeal to aficionados of The Waste Land as well as those who have never encountered it.

T.S. Eliot’s haunting vision of a spiritually barren post-war Europe is brought to life in a performance which draws out the poem’s vast array of characters as well as its rich lyrical language. Dramatic presentations of The Waste Land are rare since it is often regarded as too difficult to perform. A performance of The Waste Land with live musical accompaniment is almost unprecedented.

The Waste Land is the most influential poem of the twentieth century. It is written in short, interconnected fragments, each one offering a glimpse of humans coming to terms with a world which they find increasingly confusing. For nearly a century, readers have been haunted by its images, amused by its comedy, and absorbed by its vast array of characters.

The music will feature passages of improvisation, original composition, and direct quotation from the work of some of the most important composers of the twentieth century, including Sibelius, Shostakovich, and Schoenberg.

“Julian Lamb and David Pereira bring clarity to ‘The Waste Land’,” Canberra Times

“An utterly inspiring performance,” The RiotAct, Canberra

The Waste Land
Shadow Players
When: 22-27 September
Where: Kwai Tsing Theatre, Black Box Theatre
Tickets: $230 ($170 Seniors, Students) from Urbtix
More info:
22-26 September – 8pm
26, 27 September – 4pm
Free Seating
For each purchase of 5-10 standard tickets 10% off, 11-15 standard tickets 15% off, 16+ standard tckets 20% off

The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot’s seminal poem, The Waste Land, comes to life in this new, dramatic adaptation.

“Julian Lamb and David Pereira bring clarity to ‘The Waste Land’,” Canberra Times

“An utterly inspiring performance,” The RiotAct, Canberra

The Waste Land

Shadow Players
When: 22-27 September
Where: Kwai Tsing Theatre, Black Box Theatre
Tickets: $230 ($170 Seniors, Students) from Urbtix
More info:
22-26 September – 8pm
26, 27 September – 4pm
Free Seating
For each purchase of 5-10 standard tickets 10% off, 11-15 standard tickets 15% off, 16+ standard tckets 20% off

Udderbelly Festival 2015-16

The Udderbelly Festival to be held in conjunction with The Great European Carnival (4 December 2015 to 14 February 2016) has already released tickets to some great shows including comedians Rory Bremner, Jason Manford, musicians Gobsmacked, Michael Winslow and shows such as The Boy with Tape on His Face and The Elephant in the Room.

Udderbelly Festival
Date: 4th December 2015 – 14th February 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: various