The Diary of Song: HKRep Revives Classic Play After a Decade

Description

First staged in 2017 to critical acclaim, The Diary of Song returns in a newly imagined production that expands its original poetic and theatrical language. Part of the Chinese Cultural Festival 2026, the play follows Song — both intellectual and warrior — whose mythic past collides with a present shaped by disillusion, as he now sells sesame cakes and records life’s absurdities in his diary. Through fragments of memory, violence and quiet observation, the work reflects on a generation bound by fate, probing what remains of heroism amid ordinary survival. With new scores by Chan Wai-fat and a wider cast of figures drawn from history and legend, the production reframes Song’s journey as both personal and collective.

Directed by Poon Wai-sum, artistic director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, this revival bears the mark of one of the city’s most influential theatre-makers. A veteran playwright and educator, Poon has shaped Hong Kong’s contemporary theatre landscape through works such as Moscow Express and Hu Xueyan, My Dear. His dramaturgy often blends historical imagination with sharp social insight, and here he revisits The Diary of Song with renewed scale and musicality, reaffirming its place as a defining work in his repertoire.