Gently does it: Class 7A’s latest drama daddi is a slice of reality
What Class 7A Drama Group’s latest work lacks in dramatic impact is more than made up for with down-to-earth story-telling, writes Vanessa Yung
THERE’S A WORLD OF difference between acting for a theatre audience and for the camera. And while Leung Shing-him, founder and artistic director of Class 7A Drama Group, prefers to recruit actors with stage training, he had no hesitation bringing on board veteran screen actor Liu Kai-chi for his latest production, daddi.
“Although Liu’s most active in the television and movie industry, he has been playing in theatre shows in the past few years,” says Leung. “I like hiswork, which is always sophisticated. He understands that in a theatrical show his emotion has to be real. He acts in an expressive but not exaggerated way.”
Liu, alongside actress Grace Yuen Wai-ying and director Terence Chang Thomp-kwan, was Leung’s first choice.
Because the last thing he wants for the down-to-earth script he penned, revolving around a two-hour conversation between a retiring school teacher and his soon-to-be-30 daughter, is actors who overact and a director who doesn’t understand the dynamics.
“I’d rather not do it than let an unsuitable cast ruin it,” says Leung.
Judging from how the cast reflects on his script, it seems his choice was ideal.