THANK heavens for the freedom of the press. Without it, you'd never get to hear of a theatrical treat coming up later this month at the Fringe Club.
Following its sell-out three-night success to close the International Fringe Festival, the play Stop Press has been dragged out of the mothballs by its producers The Not So Loud Theatre Company for a re-run.
It will be up and re-running from May 30 to June 3, and Go can heartily recommend it. An investigation of, you guessed it, self-censorship, it charts the investigations of a pair of journalists, whose in-depth probe on Central Radio into corrupt practices across the border has knock-on effects they never expected.
'This is the first play we've done that confronts the 1997 issue head-on,' said company spokesperson Tom Hope. 'I had serious misgivings about it at first - all that Hong Kong angst spilling out on stage. But once the show took shape I sensed we had another winner on our hands. The audience response was fantastic. Journalists included. We even got a good review.' Written by Belinda Caminada, the play draws on one of the most shocking events in recent journalistic history. Indeed, it returns as Hong Kong journalist Xi Yang is entering the second year of his 12-year prison sentence in China. All proceeds from the opening night will go to Amnesty International.
