THE Fringe Festival kicked off with a dance drama Lianne and Chuck, directed and choreographed by Chan Kai-tai and written and produced by Fringe Festival director Benny Chia.
The play is loosely based on a famous traditional classic by Liang Zhu. This production updates the setting to present-day Hong Kong and replaces Yintai and Sanbo with Lianne and Chuck - well, two of each as it turns out.
These double entities represent 'the male and female side that co-exist in each and every one of us'. The theme is clear - love beyond class and gender.
The dance was more successful than the dialogue. Dialogue was kept to a minimum although the frequent monologues tended to be rather repetitive, often lapsing into cliches that tended to reaffirm rather uninspiring stereotypes.
The main part of the play, the complex action and the layers of emotions, was well expressed in exquisite dance sequences. The power of the story rests on the suppression of love and its ultimate emergence, and this was well expressed through imaginative choreography that built up to the jubilant celebration of the lovers reborn as butterflies.
The most memorable part of the evening was in scenes eight and nine of the second act. Here the male side of Chuck (Sean Kwan) stops the female side of himself (Yvette Huang) from rejoining the female side of Lianne (Qiao Yeung) when the latter is about to emigrate. Emotion intertwines as the trio weaves the internal struggle and external dilemma with fluent and evocative movement, culminating in the departure of Lianne and the female side of Chuck committing suicide.