Sheung Wan Civic Centre Until Jun 26, 8pm; Jun 26-27, 4pm
Sex, homosexuality and death. Hardly something your average Hong Kong family would discuss over the dinner table, but that is exactly why stage actor Derek Wong Kin-tung wants to explore these topics in his solo debut My Very First Time.
Based on his experience as a drama student in the US a decade ago, this semi-autobiographical show recounts the thrills of falling in love for the first time, the pain of grieving and the frustration of coming to terms with one's sexual identity.
'The hardest part of the show for me is to relive the memory of losing a close relative,' says the 28-year-old, whose uncle died 10 years ago in his 40s. 'I received a call from my mother, asking me to call my uncle because he was dying [of cancer]. I couldn't come back to Hong Kong at the time so I knew that would be my last call to him. It is an experience that upsets me even to this day.'
Wong says he wrote a song to express feelings that he couldn't say in words.
'In a way, this production is very therapeutic ... to be able to talk about one's loss openly.'