劇場
Roots Hanging - Work-in-Progress
Director and Script Adapatation:
Henry Chan Ting-hin
Producer:
Loui Yuen
Performers:
Ko Ki-yan, Tung Chung-can,
Vida Wu, Chan Tak Wing, Vigin Tsang
Lighting design: Wong Ka-ki
Sound design: Brian Ting
Performance photography: Edwin Chuk
Video: Jovita Siu, Tiffany Wong
Achknowledgement: Commission from the Tai Kwun for the work-in-progress presentation
Roots hanging entered its next phase of creative development in 2023, as one of the performance productions of Table To-gather, a 3-year-programme initated by On and On Theatre Workshop.
Roots Hanging is adapted from the work of the same name by Hong Kong author Wong Yi. The story begins with the love story of a young woman named "you" and centers around a banyan tree that was chopped outside HKU. The story also looks at a generation's remembering and forgetting, in addition to how women struggle with self-worth in the age of social media.
Photos by Edwin Chuk
Banyan tree, Tang Chi Ngong Building of the University of Hong Kong, Bonham Road
Beneath the century-old banyan tree, she and he fell in love. She made a concerted effort to take a series of wedding photos on a busy, narrow street which caught everyone’s attention. Ultimately, the wedding photo was left in a garbage dump, leaving only her face prominently captured on camera and shared on social media. People said that the century-old banyan tree is a unique landscape that has to be conserved and it represents the collective memory of many Sai Wan residents and HKU students. However, to her, it merely represents the humiliation of a marriage promise being broken and serves as evidence of her failure in life.
What are you listening to and what do you think of?
In what way is memory built? A song that can occasionally be heard, the sound of fabric rubbing against one another or a noisy air conditioner – through sound, we might "feel" as though we are in a scenario from the past that left a deep impression on us.
How might our memories create a different interpretation of the performance if we hear familiar songs or sounds in the theater? The girl's memory fragments are presented using a variety of technological media, including sound, text monologues, and actors’ performances; in the theater, conflicting memories from various time periods and locations collide.
“You” who cannot defend yourself
“You” are every female narrator, the female model who is not allowed to speak, the microphone that records the sound, the protagonist who appears repeatedly in the text and is always mentioned in the second person...You can also be the still photo from the stage computer, or the audience.
This is "your" story, the performers repeatedly tell the audience. How far are these silent protagonists from the world on stage?
