Out of the Box and off the wall
Fans of the Box have come to expect the unexpected from the Hong Kong music ensemble. Kung Chi-shing, who co-founded the Box with UK-based writer, illustrator and performer Peter Suart in 1987, has been known to play the violin with a plastic stirrer and will be sounding out the ancient percussion instrument of crotales with his bow in the forthcoming production of Bluebeard.
Suart, 45, created the Tik and Tok series of illustrated fiction and has been active in the Hong Kong music and theatre scene since the 1980s. His fiction asks questions such as 'What is real?', 'How should we live?' and, in Bluebeard, 'Who's going to sleep on the sofa tonight?'
'From the very beginning, we haven't been doing pure musical, as in operas or Broadway musicals,' says 46-year-old Kung, who studied classical music and composition in the US during the 1980s.
Kung and Suart aren't easily pigeon-holed. Over the years, the Box has produced numerous stage works combining music with voices, lyrics and theatrical gestures. Many of the productions draw on works of literature, from Franz Kafka's The Bridge to Oscar Wilde's Salome. But none of these works has been presented in a straightforward style.
'Our work is never narrative in the linear sense,' says Kung. 'It goes back and forth, so the audience won't even bother to trace the story.' Only by taking the audience out of their normal frames of seeing can they experience more.
Kung and Suart's style of music theatre will be given an airing in the forthcoming production of Bluebeard, which draws on both the 17th-century fairy tale written by Charles Perrault and Bela Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, which had its premiere in 1918. The Bluebeard story features explicit violence and patriarchal oppression, with the wealthy aristocrat locking up his wives in his chateau and killing them. Rather than repeat the violence of the original story, the Box's Bluebeard offers the possibility of healing.
'The image of violence in art, when properly filtered, can ennoble - art that opens into beauty, and art that illuminates the heart of darkness,' says Suart about his artistic statement. The key is to be able to let the audience focus on the structure and emotions.
'Our style is abstract,' says Kung. 'We tend to throw people off in terms of expectations.' He says that he and Suart are less concerned with pleasing the audience than with keeping themselves open to surprises that are vital to their growth as artists.
This means that there are limits on the way they rehearse. They insist on leaving scope for chance and variation to take place, as the music and acting come together on stage. This has also meant that the Box have never done re-runs (except for one show in Taiwan) during past two decades.
'We often don't see the result until the actual performance, but we draw our faith from our experience,' says Kung, who never plays his violin in tune. 'Nothing will stop me from doing that.'
Despite having attracted criticisms, both Kung and Suart are adamant that they'll continue to pursue their unusual approach to art and life. 'In life, we control so much already; I don't want to repeat that in art,' says Kung. 'I'd rather be recognised as a beautiful loser than an outstanding young person.'
As well as the production of Bluebeard, a book is being planned to mark the 20th anniversary of the Box. The project has become a review by academics, artists and cultural practitioners of the local cultural scene during the past 20 years. 'What's interesting is that there are about 30 names now,' Kung says. 'They talk about the Hong Kong cultural climate in diverse ways, but all of them are thinking about what to do and how to move on.'
Bluebeard, the Box, Sept 21-22, 8pm, Auditorium, Kwai Tsing Theatre, HK$120-HK$200. Programme inquiries: 2668 7323