Preview-Three Little Men-Brave Heart Theatre
28-11-14
By: Meaghan McGurgan
Brave Heart Theatre has opened two shows so far in the past couple months but they're not finished yet with their inaugural 2014 season. They're closing with a world premiere piece by Wing Man Lam - a local HK playwright getting her debut with a new theatre company in an alternative performance space, the Premium Sofa Club. An enthusiast about life and art, I was very excited to chat with her and Tom Hope (Artistic Director of Brave Heart) about creating new work and working on a world premiere play.
"I'm excited. Also a lot of apprehension. It's hard to not look at it as something that's gonna make or break you but life has taught me just to roll with the punches," says Wing, "The sheer joy of seeing my characters brought to life - it's daunting too, since I put a piece of myself in all the characters I write. That counts as part of the excitement, too."
She saw Edward Albee's Three Tall Women and was immediately inspired by the work, "I slept for two hours, woke up in the middle of the night, and started writing Three Little Men. I think it's safe to say the inspiration came entirely from that great piece of work... Critics believe Albee’s play is an exploration of his foster mother, with whom he had a difficult relationship. In that sense, I would say his play is about the character of this woman with her colorful but not necessarily amiable personality. My play is about the journey of discovery and personal evolution each of us makes. I wrote it in the hope of inviting the audience to reflect on their own personal evolution. They are completely different plays but, if there was no Three Tall Women, there’d be no Three Little Men."
How does Tom Hope feel about directing this new play? "The advantage of a new work by a local author as intelligent and supportive as Wing is that she has handed the script over for us to interpret as we think fit, no strings attached, but is willing and able to answer any questions as they arise. That doesn’t mean of course she’ll necessarily like the end product but it does mean we feel liberated and affirmed to do our best by her."
And what does he make of the work itself? "There’s a danger here of over-gushing but here goes. Wing wrote Three Little Men in English after graduating from the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York (so there’s a very strong American rhythm to the dialogue) but her first language is Cantonese. Every actor I showed the script has been wowed by the dialogue. To me, it’s amazing that she can write so fluently and funnily in a second language. But maybe it helps her to have that distance. Like Beckett writing in French."
Three Little Men is described in the publicity blurb as "three men in a room, wondering why the hell they’re there – and who the hell they are."
Tom takes up the story: "The men are aged 24, 44 and 74. The 24 year old is a newly qualified lawyer, instructed to make a will for the dying 74 year old, who is nursed by the 44 year old. They have a lot in common – a lot more than seems likely, in a normal world. But who’s to say this is a normal world…"
The actors, all locals, are Andy Chworowsky, Erik Floyd and Harry Oram. You might know Harry from his Heckler award winning performance in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot last year or his recent ventures on the Hong Kong big screen. You can also check out his interview with HKELD as Artist of the Month a few months ago.
.jpg)
As with all the Brave Heart productions for this inaugural season, your price of admission includes free flowing beer from Scapa Scandia, which makes the ticket price seem more than reasonable for the show. They have special ticket prices for seeing the show during previews and discounts when you purchase tickets online at ticketingover.com. Tickets are 100HKD for students all shows (whether bought online or at the door). Otherwise standard adult tickets are 100HKD online/150HKD at door for first week, HKD200 online/250HKD at door from there on.
Three Little Men will be playing at the Premium Sofa Club through December 19th. As for the first two shows in this Brave Heart season, Three Little Men plays for just one hour so there are two performances per evening, at 7pm and 9pm, on Wednesdays through Fridays only. "Audiences have loved each of our first two shows, The Double Bass and Tear Gas - and loved the Premium Sofa Club venue for its ambience and laid back settees – and loved the beer too, of course," says Tom.
If you want to support the local art scene and new writing, then check out this play. The world is often unkind to new work - it's very important that we get out there and see it for ourselves.
For more information about Three Little Men, click here.
Comments
No comment at the moment.