A comic double take on motion, emotion and the demeaning of life

Body language is a key part of an actor's craft, which is why Sun Wai-keung and Wang Wai have found performing in the drama Whose Life is it Anyway? such a challenge: they take turns playing a quadriplegic.

On alternate nights, Sun and Wang play the part of Harrison, a talented sculptor who was injured in a car accident, and is now paralysed from the neck down.

Despite what might sound like a depressing scenario, the three-hour Whose Life is it Anyway? is comic and crisp.

Written by British playwright Brian Clark, and translated and restaged by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, the play is thought-provoking and uplifting. The version by award-winning director Ho Wai-lung confronts the audience with a basic question: What is living?

'I used to think about what was missing in my life, and what was most important,' says Sun, who joined the company after graduating from the Hong Kong Academy of Arts in 1999. 'After going through the rehearsals, I realised the ability to move is the most important thing in life for me.

'Day after day, I tried to lie still in my bed for hours to get myself into Harrison's situation. Once, I wanted very much to urinate, but forced myself to stay in bed.