The Liaisons: The next frontier for Cantonese opera

Debuting his latest theatre brain-child "The Liaisons" at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, veteran theatre director Fredric Mao is prepared to be pelted with rotten tomatoes. He’s risking the censure of both Chinese opera zealots and Western theater goers with his latest production, an experimental remake of the canonical Cantonese opera work "The Legend of the Purple Hairpin."

"The Purple Hairpin is so well-loved by Cantonese opera fans that they don’t mind watching it over and over again -- including me," says Mao.

"But just because I like the spirit of the old story, and the aesthetics of Chinese opera, doesn’t mean I can superimpose them onto modern theater. The Liaisons is a play that looks at whether the lofty ideals expressed in the original story can be applied to modern-day characters."

Reviving tradition by breaking it

The original Purple Hairpin was penned by legendary playwright Tong Tik-sang. The plot follows the plights of star-crossed lovers Fok Siu-yuk and Lee Yik, who were wrenched apart after one night of passion.

For Liaisons, Mao stole the main characters and a few famous scenes from the original, and ran with it. He's abandoned the plot and completely rearranged the famous original score.

"Chinese opera industry vanguards will probably complain to me after watching this. They’ll say, why aren’t the sets done more lavishly? Why aren’t there more singing parts?" laughed Mao.

But perhaps Mao’s mishmash treatment of the classic story is just what Hong Kong’s traditional and modern theater needs.

Chinese opera in today's society is an acquired taste. The elegance of Chinese opera's shrill singing, slow pace, and cryptic body language is lost to contemporary youths.

"It’s hard to start the habit of watching Chinese opera these days. There are so many other forms of entertainment out there that require less patience. And of course we don’t have superstar Cantonese opera singers anymore like Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin to draw audiences in," says Mao.

"I want to bring out the essence of Chinese opera [through Liaisons]. If this attracts and moves them, perhaps they will start watching Cantonese opera."

A visit to famous Chinese opera arena Sun Beam Theatre in Wanchai reminds us of the culture's uphill struggle. Cantonese opera shows are massively popular among the elderly, but young faces in the audience are rare. While the government is investing in a revival of the traditional art form, purists are resisting change and finding new blood is difficult. 

Lam Kam-tong and Amy Wu in character for "The Liaisons."

The future is remixed

As musical director for Liaisons, Leon Ko admits he had to learn to love the music. 

"I didn’t grow up listening to Cantonese opera, so when I first started on this project I felt a resistance to the whole genre," said the American-educated Ko.

"But slowly I discovered that Chinese opera has an addictive gentility to it. The melodies are not structured but it sticks in your head for days."

To make the production easier on the ears of the uninitiated, Ko stripped down the original opera's score, replacing the clang of Chinese percussion and brass with soft cello and double bass.

The result is an East-meets-West experimental production that escapes simple categorization as a musical. The cast swells into song at random moments, weaving both traditional and re-engineered Cantonese operatic strains within their stage dialogue "to push emotions to its peak," says Mao.

Genre-busting aside, Mao has more ambitions for Liaisons. The cast and crew is a stellar collection of Hong Kong's creative talents across a range of media: Oscar-winning costume designer Tim Yip, movie scribes Felix Chong and Alan Ma of blockbuster "Infernal Affairs," Chinese opera star Lam Kam-tong and Amy Wu, veteran TV star Tse Kwan-ho and performer Josie Ho, also known as Stanley Ho's daughter. 

"Unlike performance arts talents around the world, people in Hong Kong's creative industry just stick to one medium. Movie people don't have the skill set do a stage production, or even a television drama.

"With Liaisons, I'm trying to bring these people from different creative industries together, and get them talking. Hopefully this will inspire them to work on more cross-industry productions in the future," said Mao.

"The Liaisons" is sold out at the 2010 Hong Kong Arts Festival. www.artsfestival.org.