RTHK to air laureate's play

A play by China's exiled Nobel Literature Prize winner, Gao Xingjian, whose work is banned on the mainland, is to be aired on government-run RTHK.

Weekend Quartet, an hour-long radio drama adapted from Gao's 1995 play of the same name, will be presented in English on Radio 4 on Monday at 7pm.

Works by the controversial writer, who renounced his Communist Party membership after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, are banned on the mainland. Gao has lived in exile for 13 years.

RTHK had received no objections, said Jonathan Douglas, executive producer/director of the radio drama.

Mr Douglas said he chose Gao's play because he was 'the man of the moment'. 'Gao has such an original voice. I found the quality of this play to be a league above the rest. It has poetic and psychological functions,' Mr Douglas said. 'His works are banned on the mainland, but there is nothing critical of the Chinese Government in this play.'

He spent months looking for potential writers and texts before deciding on Gao's play.

Dino Mahoney, who adapted the play for radio, added: 'Hong Kong is making a wonderful contribution to the world of literature by producing and airing Weekend Quartet.

'No one would be able to do it in China. We are able to honour Gao because of Hong Kong's 'one country, two systems' principle.'

Weekend Quartet is part of the Worldplay International Festival of Radio Drama, an annual event involving public radio stations around the world. More than one million listeners worldwide are expected to tune in.

Gao was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000, a decision Beijing said was politically motivated.

Weekend Quartet tells of an encounter between an elderly artist and his wife and a young couple in their country home that ends in romantic entanglement.