A Hong Kong workover for popular French musical about a little witch

It may have been staged around France more than 800 times, but putting on Éphémère the Little Witch here as part of this year’s Hong Kong International Arts Carnival is still no walk in the park, says Mohamed Drissi, who has brought the musical to Hong Kong. For a start, the entire show had to be translated into Cantonese.

“We toured around primary and secondary schools with a shorter, 30-minute version of the musical in May, but starting from January, we were already watching videos of the original French musical and translating the script into Cantonese,” says Drissi. The musical veteran describes the process as an “endless loop of watching videos, meetings, and discussing” with lyricist and vocal coach Jordan Cheng Kwan-chi and director Freddy Wong Man-ho.

Aside from the lyrics and original script, the trio had to take into account the movements and expressions of the actors in order to fully understand the context, and transcribe the fluidity of the narrative into Cantonese.

“From the moment that I decided to bring this show to Hong Kong about two years ago, it was a huge process of thinking about how to bring it over, and have the local audience understand the musical without losing the magic of the original piece,” says Drissi.

Éphémère the Little Witch tells the story of a poverty-stricken young witch and her mother who, in an attempt to help a desperate businessman with their witchcraft, are sent on a whimsical journey that goes awry.