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The following is issued on behalf of the Provisional Regional Council:

Have you ever thought of using your "eyes" to listen to a performance? The Hong Kong Theatre of Deaf will communicate with the audience by means of a wide range of performing techniques including facial expressions, body movements, eyes and hands in November. For those

who have never had a chance to appreciate such fantastic mime performances or visual communication theatrical performances, this is an opportunity that cannot be missed.

Presented by the Provisional Regional Council and coordinated by Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong, the Outstanding Visual Theatre Excerpts will be performed at on November 5 (8 pm), November 13 (8 pm) and November 20 (8 pm) & 21 (3 pm) at Tsuen Wan Town Hall, Sha Tin Town Hall and Tuen Mun Town Hall respectively.

The performance will be performed in form of visual communication theatre, which is a form of theatrical performance calling forth a high degree of cooperation, mutual understanding and emotional expression of the performers.

The Outstanding Visual Theatre Excerpts will include Snakes & Ladders (Australia), Carmen (Spain), The Life of the Brave Tailor (Germany), With an Eye to Hear (and a hand to talk) (Singapore), Little Mahagonny (Sweden) and People of the Eye (USA).

For some of us, life is like an unpredictable game. There are days of climbing and days of falling. The wordless play Snakes and Ladder is an entertaining and poignant journey by a young lady into the internal landscape of the mind. We see her thoughts materialized as a shadow, casting haze of confusion.

Carmen is a well-known Opera-comique that delves into the roots of Spanish culture through passion, freshness and strength. It is a play full of symbolism that has flamenco dance with men and women falling in love and dying for love.

The Life of the Brave Tailor is a fairy tale about a poor tailor who kills seven flies on his sandwich and as a result considers himself a hero. He goes out to show what a great guy he is. This is presented in an experimental and abstract way that makes it interesting and thrilling event for audiences of all ages.

With an Eye to Hear (and a hand to talk) aptly describes its high energy, highly hilarious visual comedy blending movement, mask and a cast whose bodies can morph into......ANYTHING! Be captivated by a world created by gags, slapstick, mime and comic story-telling, which offers insight into everyday life.

Little Mahagonny tells the story of the town as a fish-net for opportunists. Three children construe a grotesque adult world where everything is permitted -- everything with the exception of not having money......

People of the Eye is an original production developed by The National Theatre of Deaf. It was designed with an international audience in mind, communicating through universally appealing gestures, movements and sounds, with little or no spoken language. It features fingerpainting, literal and figurative, created by people of the eye, for people of the eye.

Ever since its establishment in 1989, the Hong Kong Theatre of the Deaf has staged productions from original scripts on a regular basis. Over recent years, it has written a number of plays such as The Crazy City and The Theft of Spirit which are created in collaboration with renowned mime. It has also collaborated with the Australian Theatre of the Deaf to produce the well-received plays No More Lesser and Creation. The Theatre has also performed overseas in countries such as Australia, Japan, Macau, and the USA.

For this performance, spectacular forms of theatrical performances for the death from different regions and excerpts from such plays will be featured, so that by means of super mastery of body language and the extensive techniques in expression, the art of theatre for the deaf from these regions will be brought to the audience.

Tickets priced at $80 are available at all URBTIX outlets. Half-price tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 or above. People with disabilities holding a concessionary card, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. Concessions for the latter are available on a first-come-first-served basis. Half-price ticket holders must produce evidence of their identity or age upon admission.

For telephone reservation, please call 2734 9009. For enquiries, please call 2414 0144 (Tsuen Wan), 2694 2356 (Sha Tin) or 2450 1105 (Tuen Mun).

End/Saturday, October 16, 1999

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