Matteo Ricci: 16th-century Italian priest who tried, and failed, to convert Chinese to Catholicism is resurrected on stage

On Palm Sunday, which this year fell on April 14, the first run-through of Matteo Ricci The Musical was held at Clarence Film Studio, in the depths of Shek Kong, in the New Territories. The follow­ing day, everything would shift to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui, in preparation for open­ing night on Holy Saturday. As every Christian knows, Palm Sunday marks the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, after 40 days in the desert, to cheering crowds. By Good Friday, these fans are enthusiastically calling for his crucifixion. Three days later, he’s risen from the dead. It’s the scene-setter for a week of dramatic reversals.

His fame rests on his intellectual abilities. He translated Euclid’s geometry into Chinese, drew the first world map that combined European and Chinese knowledge, and demonstrated sundials and celestial globes. A missionary, linguist and cartographer may not immediately suggest musical material. Still, as the success of Hamilton (an 18th-century American politician), Come From Away (7,000 passengers stranded in a small town after 9/11) and The Book of Mormon (self-explanatory) have proved, these are hummable times for unlikely topics.

“We know about Matteo Ricci from our history books,” says Heidi Lee Oi-yee, the show’s producer. “But we don’t know about his contribution to cultural exchange.” Lee is having a quick coffee in Clarence Film Studio’s canteen, which, as it resembles a cave and has a massive dinosaur skull outside, is like a setting for the dawn of creation (or Creation). In the circumstances, a 16th-century priest seems almost recent. What the production team hope to create is a show that makes him, and his achievements, relevant.

The prime mover of the project is another Italian priest, Father Giovanni Giampietro, who’s been in Hong Kong since 1958. Soon after he arrived, he baptised a nine-year-old boy called Damian Lau Chung-yan. Lau grew up to become a famous TVB actor; his face has been a familiar presence in homes across this territory for several decades. Father Giampietro has had a long-cherished dream to promote the intercultural aspects of Matteo Ricci’s life. Several years ago, he asked Lau to make it happen, which is why the actor is now directing his first musical.

When Lee, who has a solid background as a performing-arts manager, was hired in 2017, only the script – co-written by Lau, Sharon Au Koon-ying and Cyprian Chan Wai-shin – existed. “Damian read it to me and it’s very impressive,” she says. “He described all the scenes – there’ll be a dance here, this is when the ship is coming – all these pictures were already in his mind. I can tell he has a very strong mission.”