KING LEAR
May 22, 2024 @ 19:30 - 21:00
A non-verbal theatre of gestures that goes far beyond Shakespeare’s work and yet remains true to its core: In King Lear, nine actresses present a female reading of the classic, staged by an interdisciplinary team of artists from Hong Kong led by director Tang Shu-wing, the “alchemist of minimalist theatre”. Following performances in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the award-winning physical theatre production is now coming to Europe for the first time and can be seen in London, Craiova/Romania and Berlin.
Old King Lear has given his kingdom to two of his daughters – a fatal decision, as they soon seek his life, causing Lear to go mad. The outcast youngest daughter Cordelia wants to save him. She returns with an army but loses the battle.
Tang Shu-wing, internationally acclaimed as a director not least for his diverse interpretations of Shakespeare, stages the material in a completely new way using the means of physical theatre.
“Even without words, the work still touches the core of what it means to be human.” Theatre Times
Programme
King Lear
after the tragedy by William Shakespeare
Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio (Hong Kong)
non-verbal theatre of gesture
in collaboration with the Teatrul Național „Marin Sorescu” din Craiova (Romania)
Tang Shu-wing adaptation/director
Yip Tung, Lindzay Chan, Amanda Leung, Peggy Chow, Lau Ting-kwan, Ko Kei-yan, Cassandra Tang, Corina Druc, Costinela Ungureanu actors
Yuen Hon-wai stage design
Yuen Hon-wai, Jade Leung costumes
Yeung Tsz-yan lighting
Anthony Yeung sound design
Billy Ng music
Performers
Tang Shu-wing
Director
The Hong Kong-born Tang Shu-wing is a theatre director and educator and has been working in the professional theatre field for 30 years. He has directed more than 60 works, including spoken theatre, non-verbal theatre, dance theatre and opera. Tang is celebrated in the media as one of Hong Kong’s most talented theatre directors. Minimalist aesthetics and physical theatre, which Tang advocates, have become a hallmark of contemporary theatre in Hong Kong.
In an effort to explore different forms of theatre expression, Tang founded No Man’s Land in 1997. He directed Three Women in Pearl River Delta (1997), Face (1998), Millennium Autopsy (1999), The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (2000), Between Life and Death (2002) and Deathwatch (2002).
Between 2004 and 2011, Tang worked at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), where he rose from lecturer to dean of the drama school within five years. During this time, he directed Phaedra (2005), Hamlet (2006) and Princess Chang Ping (2007), among others, and trained many new actors.
In 2011, Tang left the HKAPA and founded the Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, whose aim is to establish Hong Kong theater on international stages through cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural works. Numerous tours with various productions have taken Tang through China and Asia as well as to Europe. Detention (2011), a non-verbal comedy, was performed 127 times in nine cities in Europe and Asia and reached an audience of 25,000. His dance drama Thunderstorm (2012) won three major awards at the Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2013 and toured Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Taipei and Singapore. In 2012 and 2015, he presented Titus Andronicus and Macbeth in Cantonese at Shakespeare's Globe in London.
At the 2015 Hong Kong Arts Festival, he directed the opera Datong, which was shown as a highlight in London as part of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China. Following his passion for nurturing the younger generation, he directed Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2018) and Idomeneo (2021) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In January 2023, he took over the direction of La Bohème at the Hong Kong Opera.
The all-female, non-verbal King Lear (2021), which will now be shown in Berlin, can be seen as part of his ongoing research into the function of the body in various theatrical styles. Through his publications Analysis and Reflections on the Theories of Acting of Meyerhold, Titus Andronicus – Approach in Minimalistic Aesthetics & Physical Theatre and Detention – Out of Curiosity, Tang invites others to partake in his creative experiences.
Numerous international awards and appointments to cultural institutions in Hong Kong attest to the respect and esteem in which Tang and his work are held.
Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio
The 2011 newly formed Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio (founded in 1997 as No Man’s Land) is a centre for theatre research and practice. The studio’s minimalist body aesthetics are not limited by any particular theory, because for the artists the appeal of their work lies in recognizing when to insist on something and when to open up. The works of Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio are created from specific artistic approaches and based on the exploration of related practices.
To date, the company has created 19 productions, including Titus Andronicus, Titus Andronicus 2.0, Detention, Thunderstorm, Why Aren’t You Steve Jobs?, Macbeth, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Scenes from a Marriage, Larger Than Life and King Lear. Cooperative work and mutual support within the team is just as important to the artists as the targeted promotion of the younger generation. In 2014, they launched the Physical Theatre Youth Training Program, which has established itself as a brand in theatre training and continues their mission.
In November 2020, the Studio co-curated the 1st Hong Kong International Shakespeare Festival (postponed to Fall 2022 due to the pandemic) with the Hong Kong Arts Centre, marking a milestone in showcasing Hong Kong theatre to the world through the shared cultural legacy of Shakespeare’s work.
In recognition of its contribution to and leading role in contemporary art and culture, the studio was named an “Eminent Arts Group” by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2019.
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