Tiananmen-themed play fails to garner support

A theatre group that produces an annual drama on the theme of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown risks a loss of more than HK$100,000 after including the Occupy Central movement in this year's play.

Stage64, which in the past has played to near-full houses, says only 40 per cent of its seats have been booked just days before show time.

The latest play, Beliefs Soar (Rerun), has former Tiananmen activist Chai Ling as its main theme, but also touches on the civil disobedience movement founded to stage a mass pro-democracy protest in Central in July next year.

Last year's drama played to an almost full house and teachers would take students to the show, scriptwriter Wei Siu-lik said. "But teachers told me this year they preferred plays based solely on the June 4 incident."

The play costs about HK$200,000 to produce and, despite limited subsidies from the Professional Teachers' Union and Federation of Students, can run into deficit even with a full house. In a last-ditch effort to fill the seats, it gave out free tickets at the Book Fair to anyone who bought a copy of the book Occupy Central by movement founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting.

"We gave up money in return for audiences, just hoping the messages of our play would be heard," producer Cheung Ka-wan said. He emphasised that the play did not call for the audience to support Occupy Central.