Waiting Heart: Revisiting Tong Tik-sang’s Masterpiece ‘The Legend of the Purple Hairpin’

Description

To celebrate the 101st anniversary of the birth of eminent Cantonese opera playwright, scriptwriter, and film director Tong Tik-sang (1917–1959), the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) and Utopia Cantonese Opera Workshop (UCOW) stage a modern interpretation of his acclaimed Cantonese opera The Legend of the Purple Hairpin.

Entitled Waiting Heart, this collaborative production reinterprets the classic love story of Huo Xiaoyu and Li Yi through multi-media. By bringing together artistic elements of dance theatre and a minimalist approach to Cantonese opera, as well as combining live music, video projection, and the switching of roles among dancers and actors, the HKDC and UCOW aim to create a unique, evocative and emotional performance.

The production breaks the usual rules of theatre by making the audience a part of the performance. Half of the audience will be seated in the stalls right next to the stage, and therefore will be impacted by the performers’ facial expressions, whereas the other half of the audience will be standing in the gallery, and experience the story in bird’s eye view.