Our interview is scheduled for 3.30pm. Three hours later, it's still not looking likely. Let's see: what can Michael Bogdanov, one of Britain's most famous freelance directors, possibly think of next to put it off? 'I can only give you two minutes,' he says when his kindliness finally gets the better of him and he sits down to talk about his production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt with the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. Bogdanov has a bit of a problem with the press. Three years ago, he launched an attack on critics in the New Statesman. They were, he wrote, 'vicious, vituperative, vitriolic, objectionable, abusive, arrogant, excretory, disgruntled, cavilling, small-minded, toadying' sycophants. Perhaps the man called 'Bodger' by reviewers will have better luck with Peer Gynt than he had with Antony And Cleopatra last month at the Perth Festival, a production slammed for its poor delivery, flat performances and gratuitously updated text. The artistic director and co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company has certainly had a happy association with Hong Kong, bringing productions from the National here, including his acclaimed Wars Of The Roses. Bogdanov refuses to institutionalise texts. Peer Gynt is being presented, cut in half to a just-about manageable 3.75 hours, in Cantonese - which Bogdanov doesn't speak. 'You can only do the play as you know it and see it and understand it,' he said. 'This is a very European production and Norwegian at that.' The play is full of Northern passions, preoccupations with the individual and powerful feminist philosophies. 'It's also about the power of the imagination to create wonderful things for the good of mankind or to use your imagination to make money and destroy,' said Bogdanov. 'It's about the way we use our brains.' Peer Gynt. HK Repertory Theatre. Tomorrow to Sunday and March 12 to 13. Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. $80-$160 Urbtix