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British artist Peter Suart has created five well-known one-man theatre works over the years. In his coming production, entitled "Melencolia", to be staged as part of the Boundless Multimedia Series in July, Suart will explore historical, philosophic and religious issues through speech, gesture, projections and recorded music.
Peter Suart lived in Hong Kong from 1985 to 1999. He co-founded the Box, a theatrical music ensemble, with Kung Chi-shing in Hong Kong in 1987. He writes the Tik and Tok books, which introduce children and adults to various mysteries, and illustrates classic fiction for the Folio Society in London, lately "Gulliver's Travels" and "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".
The play is based on three engravings by the acclaimed German artist Albrecht Dürer, entitled "Melencolia I", "Knight, Death and the Devil" and "St. Jerome in His Study". The engravings act as a key to explore historical, philosophic and religious issues. Different incidents are woven together, sometimes in a derelict chapel in the middle of an English wood, sometimes in the lovely German city of Nuremberg. The story tells of a tragedy in Nuremberg before Germany was condemned for the Nazi sins of World War II. Here, in a lovely city built on the Pegnitz River, Dürer made his masterworks. Here the arguments of Luther's reformation raged. Here the Nazi party held its rallies, here the Allied bombers dropped their explosives and incendiaries, and here, in a ruined city, the trials were conducted after the war. Should the innocents also bear the consequences of war?
"Melencolia" is one of the programmes in the Boundless Multimedia Series presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It will be performed in English, German, Latin and Cantonese at 8pm on July 12 and 13 (Friday and Saturday) at the Shouson Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Centre. Tickets priced at $200 and $160 are now available at URBTIX outlets, on the Internet and by credit card telephone booking. Half-price tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities and their minders, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients (limited tickets for CSSA recipients are available on a first-come, first-served basis). Please refer to programme leaflets for details of the group booking discount up to 20 per cent.
For programme enquiries, please call 2268 7323 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/multi_arts/program_261.html. Ticketing enquiries can be made on 2734 9009 and credit card telephone bookings on 2111 5999. Tickets can also be booked online at www.urbtix.hk.
A series discount of 10 per cent is available for any purchase of standard tickets for "Melencolia" and GayBird's new media music production "CouCou on Mars" (June 14 to 16 at the Theatre, Hong Kong City Hall). Please refer to programme leaflets for more information.
Ends/Friday, May 3, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:43
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