Review-The Room-Hong Kong Dramatists and Theatre Horizon
21-6-13
By: Stephanie Ip
Things looked pretty bleak for the team behind The Room yesterday afternoon. This critic was informed around 2:30pm that Thursday’s opening performance was in serious danger of not actually having a set. The team had been meticulously putting it all together, large parts of which were made with paper, when the venue stomped in and decided at the very last minute that it posed a fire hazard. The production team could either comply with bureaucratic rules and spray wet fireproof paint on borrowed books and cardboard structures or start dismantling.
Quite ironic really when, on the conceptual level, the whole play was centred on the freedoms for expression of art, of literature, of culture, unsullied by the demands of society and of authority. “Who killed creativity?” their poster boldly asked.
Well, apparently their venue management tried to.
Award-winning director Chan Chu Hei and renowned playwright Poon Sze Wan, true to their creative principles, said no. It’s either all or nothing.
Outrage in the art and theater community ensued, causing some media buzz. I arrived at Kwai Tsing Theatre at 8pm not knowing what to expect.
Something must have gone right in the end because the original set stood to greet me in all its unscathed glory. Better described as an installation, the theater was sporadically filled with high stacks of cardboard boxes filled with paper shreds. A tall and imposing triangular bookshelf stood in the middle and the audience had stacks of books wrapped up in cellophane as seats. More shredded paper littered the floor. Images and projections bounced off the whole set, looping a 2008 news story about the owner of the Youth Literary Bookstore who was crushed to death beneath cartons of books in his storeroom.
The real life news story was the inspiration behind the play, centered on a self-incarcerating author who buries himself in his study, surrounding himself with books and words. He laments that editors and publishers are nothing but commercial salesmen and decries the loss of real art and knowledge because no one is literate anymore.
Perhaps the afternoon ordeal left its mark on actor Yu Hon Ting, who played the reclusive professor. He delivered his lines with such fervor that I flinched at every angst-filled bark as though his dissatisfaction was aimed at me. Liu Shuk Fan was wonderfully cast as the forsaken wife who cannot understand why her husband cannot put down his books. She also appeared as Wendi Deng, wife of the infamous Rupert Murdoch (although recently divorced) and as Oprah Winfrey. Both were a figment of the professor’s imagination. Her portrayal of Wendi Deng was a breath of fresh air in this dark drama, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen a louder and brasher impersonation of Oprah Winfrey in my life.
With only the professor and his figments of imagination at the forefront of the play, the scales could have very easily been tipped and audiences could have found themselves at a soapbox about the demise of creativity but The Room is more complex than that. Playwright Poon is known for her dramatic plot twists and the play reveals itself as a suspenseful murder mystery near the end.
Surprise, surprise, the professor was not who I thought he was. And I assure you, you will never listen to the Skype ring tone the same way ever again.
The Room is playing at Kwai Tsing Theatre through Sunday. For more information, click here.
Comments
Dramatist
I left a comment here earlier and now it is gone. What happened?
21 June 2013editor
Hey Dramatist,
22 June 2013
Your comment was accidentally deleted during a spam comment clearing. It was unintentional. Please feel free to re-post it! We're really sorry!
The HKELD TeamJade
I liked this show I disagree with the 5 star rating. My boyfriend is a english speaker and he had a lot of trouble following the story. For this reason I would give it 4 stars and not 5 as I think it's a great show for chinese people (like me) but not for english people. It is my understanding that this website is mainly for expats so I disagree with this critic's rating.
22 June 2013