Production
Reframe Theatre
Playwright & Director
Yan Pat To
Could we still find happiness after a nuclear explosion?
Yan Pat To is the first ethnic Chinese playwright awarded by the Berlin Theatertreffen Stuckemarkt with his ground-breaking work A Concise History of Future China. In collaboration with dramaturge Dick Wong, Yan tackles another thought-provoking issue that is closely related to our lives through Happily ever after nuclear explosion. Two performers lead the audience into the post-nuclear-explosion world through daily objects, video presentation and installation.
A man and a woman from the nuclear contaminated areas emerge on stage. She talks of the preceding catastrophe and the life after it. He opens his mouth but there is no sound—just a severe gag reflex. To evade isolation and social exclusion, they return to their hometown, presumably now a dead city. At the epicentre of the catastrophe, to their surprise, is a vibrant nature where animals live freely and flowers blossom, no more lives destroyed, and everything is bright and beautiful…
This production is commissioned and produced by the Munich Residenztheater and premiered in June 2018 with its German version.
Production Team
Playwright and Director: Yan Pat To
Dramaturg: Dick Wong
Curator and Producer: Felix Chan
Cast: Zhao Yi Yi & Kenneth Sze
Video Designer/Technology Artist: Chiu Chih Hua
Set Designer: Yuen Hon Wai
Lighting Designer: Au Yeung Hon Ki
Music Designer: Sze Ka Yan
Costume Designer: Cheng Man Wing
Production Manager: Lee Tsan Yung
* This play is commissioned by Munich Residenztheater and premiered in June 2018 with German version.
Remarks:
- No latecomers will be admitted
- Performed in Cantonese with English surtitles
- This programme contains contents which some audience members may find disturbing as well as scenes with smoking; recommended for ages 12 and above
- Performance duration: Approx. 60 mins
Tickets | $200 (Standard Ticket); $140 (Full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above, and people with disabilities and the minders; limited quotas)
Discounts (Only applicable to standard tickets)
- 15% off for each purchase of 4 different programmes of Tai Kwun Theatre Season; 10% off for each purchase of 3 different programmes; 5% off for each purchase of 2 different programmes
- 15% off for each purchase of 4 standard tickets of the same programme of Tai Kwun Theatre Season; 10% off for each purchase of 3 standard tickets
- Upon presentation of the ticket stub of “Goldfish of Berlin” to enjoy 10% off discount at URBTIX outlet
- 10% for HKRep Pals
Photo: Ted Klm
Yan Pat To
Playwright, Director, Educator. Artistic Director of Reframe Theatre. His play A Concise History of Future China is selected by 2016 Berliner Festspiele Theatertreffen Stuckemart as one of the five theatre works presented. It is the first ethnic Chinese play ever selected. His play in Cantonese White Blaze of the Morning is awarded Best Play, the 8th Hong Kong Theatre Libre. Happily Ever After Nuclear Explosion is commissioned by Munich Residenztheater and premiered in June 2018. This play is under the programme of World/Stage. In May 2018, he has been invited by National Chengchi University (Taiwan) as Artist-in-residence. Recent works include Goldfish of Berlin, Stream of Consciousness, an Immersive Theatre series at Fringe Club Hong Kong and The Second Year of Jianfeng (On & ON Theatre Workshop).
Dick Wong
A graduate of Journalism, Dick Wong left the publishing industry in the mid 90s to pursue a career in contemporary dance and theatre.
In 2004, he was commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival to create B.O.B.*, which was later developed into two versions and toured extensively in Europe and Asia, including Centre National de la Danse (Paris), Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Theatre (London) and Tanz Im August (Berlin).
In 2009, he completed 1+1 in Tokyo. The work was later on invited to Cartier Fondation Paris and Kobe International Dance Festival.
In 2010, he was chosen as a laureate of the French International Residence Programme at Recollets. During his stay in Paris, he was invited to be a jury at Danse Élargie, an international dance competition co-presented by Theatre de la Ville. The same year he teamed up with Japanese choreographer Takao Kawaguchi and film director Koichi Imaizumi to present Tri_K, which subsequently toured to Tokyo, Kobe, Kanazawa, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte.
In 2011, commissioned by the In Transit Festival, he premiered Be Me in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Recent works include 0|2 (2014), a collaboration with Xing Liang, The World According to Dance (2015), a dance/theatre work on four generations of contemporary dance makers in Hong Kong and The Rite of Spring (2016) which was invited to Taipei National Theatre’s Innovation Dance Series in 2017.
Chiu Chih Hua
Chiu Chih Hua work a lot on image-art. Wandering between reality and illusion, his works involve statics and kinetics. Inspired by documentary photography, in the early years, Chiu worked on single-channel filming which performed in urban streetscape. As time goes by, Chiu changed his form of art-making from photography to model-making and keeps working on image, space and model art creations. Since 2014, Chiu creates a new image art through screendance by collaborating with sound artists, dancers, choreographers and filmmakers from different countries. This open another aspect for him to dialogue with the city in urban art creation.
About Reframe Theatre Company
Every creation of theatre work is a new and unique experience. Every work therefore experiences a new process of reframing. Reframe Theatre aims at exploring new writing, scenography, relationship between body and space and is established by Pat To Yan who is a playwright, director and the part-time university lecturer. The British renowned playwright and critic, Dan Rebellato describes Pat To Yan as a 'talented, engaged, enthusiastic, committed playwright whose work is extremely interesting, mixing the political and personal with power and effect'.
