McAulay Studio HK Arts Centre Jun 23-26, 8pm; Jun 26-27, 2pm
Italian plays are rarely staged in this city. So when performer Nicole Garbellini and director Ahmed El-Alfy realised they shared an interest in Sicilian playwright and Nobel laureate in literature Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, they wanted to introduce the masterpiece to the local audience.
'Italy has a great tradition for fashion, opera and food, but theatre-wise, not much, at least not when compared to England,' says Garbellini (above, centre), the producer of the upcoming show.
The play running in Hong Kong is the 2008 English adaptation by Rupert Goold and Ben Power. The original was first performed in Rome in 1921.
Garbellini says that when she re-read the play, years after first studying it in secondary school, she wasn't sure whether it would be easy to digest and relevant enough for Hongkongers. But after speaking to El-Alfy, who had acted in the play before, they were convinced the new version would work here.
'The 2008 adaptation is definitely more accessible and with a few more twists,' the Egyptian director says.