Tonnochy director takes city back to the present
Tonnochy is set in the late 1970s in the infamous Wan Chai nightclub of that name, but it's no nostalgia piece, said its director, Fredric Mao Chun-fai.
All good scripts have an undertone, and a play taking the city by storm this year is no exception.
"It's about striving for success in the dog-eat-dog commercial world which often blurs right and wrong. As long as Hong Kong remains a city of commerce, the audience will find resonance in the story," said Mao, whose family moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai when he was 10.
The play was an instant hit. All 10 shows sold out when it premiered last July. A sold-out second run began on Thursday. A third run is scheduled in January.
The star-studded cast, led by Tony Leung Ka-fai and Carina Lau Ka-ling, may have helped the rush for tickets. But Mao believed the appeal lay in the Hong Kong story and its still-current issues; the play is advertised as: "An ongoing fraud of the century."
Noting the ongoing corruption trial of former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, Mao added: "Fraud is happening every day... The art of drama offers ample space for imagination and each member of the audience will bring their own observations."