As a number, six has extensive associations and implications in different cultures. In Egypt, six is a cosmic number in the material world, representing time and space. In China, six is the directions of up, down, left, right, front and behind; or up, down, east, west, north and south, meaning the whole of heaven and earth. In Greece, six is a perfect number, also known as the “complete number”; but in the Bible, six represents the mortals and their imperfections, including their weaknesses and sins.

The Pork Chops Inferno Theatre uses the unique space of theatre to create a three-dimensional watching experience that reading comics could never provide. It is both 2D and 3D, both passive and active at the same time. The creator, Lai Tat Tat Wing will tell them his experience as a comic artist, and he will submerge and drown with the audience in this theatre chamber. 

CCDC's resident choreographer Sang Jijia teams with physical theatre specialist Janice Poon  to explore the perceptive heart of a trapped body.

Written and directed by Tan Chi-Kin, Doctrine of Happiness follows the lives of secondary school students, Yin, Sau, Hua, Fatso and Ling, characters first met in Tang's Chinese Lesson (HKAF 2016), a play that was named by SCMP as one of HKAF’s “best drama productions in recent years”.

The play looks at Hong Kong’s education system and its social realities as the city enters a new phase with its first female Chief Executive at the helm. Contemporary issues such as student suicides are illuminated by flashbacks as the protagonists revisit the discussions they had in their secondary school classroom. Chu Pak-him reprises his role as Chu Sir with his words still resonant from the Chinese Lesson.

See also 'The Great Learning', also in this year's HKAF, which completes the trilogy.

The madness and horror of war have rarely been so powerfully described as in Georg Trakl’s 1914 poem Dream and Derangement (Traum und Umnachtung). The carnage he witnessed as a young Austrian army medical officer in the bloody defeat of Russian forces at the start of WW1 was apocalyptic. His death by drug overdose followed shortly after, almost certainly suicide. He was 27.

Trakl’s short life was full of contradictions. He experienced incest, was a drug addicted alcoholic obsessed with self-destruction, and yet driven by a strong Christian faith. Frequently compared to Rimbaud for his youthful genius, he wrote a lifetime of image-rich and taboo-breaking verse in the space of just six years.

In 2016, at the age of 93, “national treasure” French theatre and film director Claude Régy chose to stage Trakl’s harrowing poem . He saw in its radical energy, craziness, silence and darkness the essence of his own creativity. Régy was the first in France to mount plays by Harold Pinter, Peter Handke, Nathalie Sarraute and Sarah Kane. 

Hailing from different cities across Mainland China, young choreographers Xie Xin, Li Chao, Yang Chang and Zhang Yixiang have engaged in a creative exchange with HK choreographers Poon Chun-ho, Yang Hao, Judy Yiu and Ming Pak for the creation of three new pieces that highlight cultural dialogue.

The three pieces are:

..after….

Choreographers and Dancers: Poon Chun-ho (HK) x Xie Xin (Jiangxi)

Dancers: Wang Qi, Liu Xie

Fly Me to the Moon

Choreographers and Dancers: Yang Hao (HK) & Judy Yiu (HK) x Li Chao (Shandong)

Pomelo‧Orange‧Tangerine

Choreographers and Dancers: Ming Pak (HK) x Yang Chang (Sichuan) & Zhang Yixiang (Beijing)

*** 

Co-produced with Young Artists Platform of Dance.

A double-bill programme propelled by international collaboration — Belgian composer and sound artist Peter Lenaerts works with local choreographers Wayson Poon, Kenny Leung and Yip Chan to create music and sound for their works.

In Vortex, Poon meditates on the varied impact of sound on choreography, while the reflexive energy of the body drives the interaction between dancer and audience.

The Battle Zone by Leung and Chan brings contemporary dance and street dance to illuminate new possibilities in dance and life.

To love... To hate... To crave... To reveal... To hold on tight... and to finally...let go. Viewing 4:48 is a theatrical journey into the world of Sarah Kane and her blistering final play 4:48 Psychosis. 

Performed in English with Cantonese simultaneous interpretation. 

Forget the banality of everyday life and allow any feelings to arise within you, with mindful acceptance. Immerse your senses in the realm of nothingness, elevated by the sounds of the singing bowls and live improvised music. 

Choreographer Bruce Wong, a prizewinning practitioner of Baguazhang and Neijia Quan, ponders the world through martial arts and dance.

There will be meet-the-artist sessions after the May 27 performance.

Tickets are now available at URBTIX. Discount offers and Programme Plus Events are available, please call 2329 7803 or email info@ccdc.com.hk for more information.

Tickets are now available at URBTIX. Discount offers and Programme Plus Events are available, please call 2329 7803 or email info@ccdc.com.hk for more information.