Director brings drama back to life in North District
Hardy Tsoi wants to make theatre accessible to all with his plays performed with, for and about the community
In a deserted school in Cha Kwo Ling, which Hardy Tsoi Sik-cheong jokingly describes as "a far cry from culture", he and his team are rehearsing All Quiet in the New Territory, a play about local resistance to the lease of Hong Kong to Britain in 1898.
Having spent three decades in drama education and production, Tsoi is now chairman and artistic director of Hong Kong Theatre Works (HKTW) - "works", he emphasises, being both a verb and a noun.
A venue partner of the North District Town Hall, HKTW focuses on staging plays about and for the city's northernmost district, which has not been known for its drama scene.
"Drama is an age-old communal activity for all," Tsoi likes to say. One of his aims is to dig out hidden stories through conversations and workshops with North District residents.
HKTW co-organised the first North District Winter Drama Festival in December and presented interactive plays about the area, such as Shallow Water, about parallel traders across the border, and Exile, about a homicide in the Choi Yuen housing estate.