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The award-winning Edward Lam will stage the final part of its "four great classics" series, entitled "What Is Sex?", in January next year. A highly talented creative director, Lam has twice won Best Director of the Year at the Shanghai One Drama Annual Awards.
The four-part series began with "What Is Man?" which focused on the sins of men. This was followed by "What Is Fantasy?" which looked at the trials and tribulations of life. The third installment, "What Is Success?', examined the fickle heart. And now "What Is Sex?", calls on everyone to "mend the hole in their hearts". Each of the four productions seeks to subvert our impression of classic novels as well as examining life issues and exploring the anxiety of modern people.
"What Is Sex?", the final act of the four great classics series, will be staged at the Auditorium of Kwai Tsing Theatre in January. There will be four performances. In the play an all-male cast alternates with an all-female line-up. The scene is a fancy club called "The Dream of the Red Chamber", and the 12 hosts each have a story to tell - about where they came from and a heartrending personal history they have experienced. Wealthy socialites pay fortunes just to hear these Red Chamber "inside stories". Here, wine, women and song are offset by cultured tastes and connoisseurship of the fine arts, and noble elegance sits side by side with street-wise acolytes. The narrations are repeated and enacted so many times that as time goes by, the demarcation between fiction and reality becomes blurred, and roles are switched between the hosts and their female patrons. What started off as just for fun proves to have a "karmic" outcome. None of them can escape from the dream that has haunted myriads since time immemorial. Is the karmic fate of women brought about by the original sin of their male counterparts?
The male members of the story-telling club come from three generations and their personalities differ greatly. Through their experiences of feminine psychological repression and projection they see their own nonchalance through the men in the novel. Furthermore, through the novel's female characters, they come to see that women's pain, beauty, fieriness and wisdom in the realm of love could very well be their own.
"What Is Sex?" explores the desires of modern people from the perspective of sex and is inspired and adapted from the classic novel "Dream of the Red Chamber". The symbolic meaning of karmic fate in the legend of "Nu Wa Patches up the Sky" in the original novel is extended in the play to filling the emptiness in the hearts of modern people.
A strong creative team includes playwright and director Edward Lam, literature consultant Yang Chao, music director Chen Chien-chi, singer Wei Li-an and performers Sheng Chien, Wang Hung-yuan, Liu Chia-chi, Tai Min-shiue, Peng Hao-chin, Mo Tzu-yi, Huang Chien-wei, Huang Chun-chieh, Shih Yi-hsiu, Ong Su-keong, Wang Chieh-chien, Yip Lai-ka, Wang Chao-yang and Chou Heng-yin. The play's theme song was written by Edward Lam and composed by Chen Chien-chi. Wei Li-an, winner of Best New Singer at the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, will sing live during the performances.
Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and produced by Edward Lam Dance Theatre, "What Is Sex?" (in Putonghua with Chinese surtitles) will be performed at 7.45pm on January 23 and 24, 2015 (Friday and Saturday) and at 2.30pm on January 24 and 25, 2015 (Saturday and Sunday) at the Auditorium of Kwai Tsing Theatre. Tickets priced at $120, $220, $320 and $420 are now available at URBTIX. 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 are 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 programme leaflet for details. Please note that the programme contains adult content and coarse language.
For programme enquiries, please call 2268 7325 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/theatre/program_697.html?tab=tabs-2095. Ticketing enquiries can be made on 3761 6661 and credit card telephone bookings on 2111 5999. Tickets can also be booked online at www.urbtix.hk.
Ends/Friday, November 28, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:40
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