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"The Room", a co-production of Theatre Horizon and Hong Kong Dramatists, will be staged in June. The theatre work is directed by Chan Chu-hei, Best Director (Comedy/Farce) of the 22nd Hong Kong Drama Awards, and was selected as part of the 30 Plays Celebrate 30 Years Festival of the League of Professional Theatre Women in New York.
Inspired by the real story of the owner of the Youth Literary Bookstore who died under boxes of books in 2008, playwright Janice Poon tells the story of a self-incarcerating author who is buried under a heap of abandoned books.
Having gone through an acrimonious argument with a publisher, Professor Lau is hit hard both physically and psychologically. He decides to lock himself in a room and continue with his reading and writing. He lives solely in the realm of cyber literature, with a secret room full of books to which even his wife and children cannot have access, and wages war against the tide of unhealthy practices in the publishing field - from publishers' sole preoccupation with sales volume to the media having sole say. Professor Lau fights back by locking himself away in his study in a bid to uphold authors' dignity and safeguard the true value of books. But with the rapid changes of global mass media, and the jet-speed development of smartphones and e-books, the value of books for humankind is on the decline. So what is the true value of books and knowledge? What are the traumas that lie behind the author's will and his cutting himself off from the world?
"The Room", performed in Cantonese (with some English) with English surtitles, is presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It will be staged at 8pm from June 20 (Thursday) to June 23 (Sunday), as well as at 3pm on June 22 and 23 (Saturday and Sunday), at the Black Box Theatre, Kwai Tsing Theatre. Tickets priced at $180 are now available at all 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 full-time students and CSSA recipients available on a first-come, first-served basis). A maximum discount of 20 per cent is offered for the group booking package. Please refer to the programme leaflet for details.
For programme enquiries, please call 2268 7325; for ticketing enquiries, call 2734 9009. For credit card telephone bookings, call 2111 5999. Internet bookings are available at www.urbtix.hk. For more information, visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/theatre/program_265.html.
Ends/Thursday, May 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:54
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