At 30, I managed to stand on my own feet,' said Confucius. The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (HKRep) has a far greater ambition: for its 30th anniversary season, the troupe is trying to reinvent modern Chinese drama, which celebrates its centenary.
In its forthcoming production From Sunset to Sunrise - The Quintessential Cao Yu, the HKRep will be presenting, in two hours, excerpts of three plays by the Chinese playwright (1901-1996) in Peking opera extract style.
Artistic director Fredric Mao Chun-fai says he chose excerpts from three Cao plays - The Wilderness, Sunrise and Peking Man - in order to focus on the modern aspects of his work.
He has created a new version of Sunrise, setting it in 1970s Hong Kong. Running to about an hour, it's the longest piece and has a complete story. The Wilderness will be performed as it would have been in Cao's days, and Peking Man, which tells how a good Chinese woman in a once-affluent feudal family chose to spend her life, will be performed in English, with actress Lynn Yau Foon-chi playing the lead.
'I've always wanted to stage plays in English, but it's difficult to find suitable artists,' says Mao. 'It's one thing to speak good English, but another to perform in English.'
Although presenting a master Chinese playwright in this way is commendable, those familiar with Cao's work may wonder if it will work, especially with the 30-minute-extract from The Wilderness.