Three Letter Opera
Mathias Woo (Chinese: 胡恩威) is a famous local drama director in Hong Kong. He has joined Zuni Icosahedron (Chinese: 進念．二十面體), an important local culture organization of HK, since 1988. His outstanding theatre works include East Wing West Wing (Chinese: 東宮西宮) and 1587 - A Year of No Significance (Chinese: 萬曆十五年). He is good at utilizing some social elements of local HK style in comedy to reflect some unfair, unjust and unreasonable phenomenon of the society. His latest work is Three Letter Opera (Chinese: 三字經歌劇 《孔巨基》).
The drama consisted of five acts and lasted for 90 minutes. It was a solo show by a famous local drama actor Chan Ho Fung (Chinese: 陳浩峰). Chan acted a private tutor, a computer user, a maid, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter and an idol by himself only. The actor weaved up his dialogue and lyrics by some jargon and slang of Confucianism, Hong Kong Education and youth, especially net generation peers. He gave a direct speech to express the situation of HK education in some parts. The show was like a Stand-up Comedy with a slight plot.
It was somehow funny but quite boring in some parts, especially in Act IV. I know it was the style of Woo, i.e. the crossover between the comedy and serious speech. I expected not only a list of facts we have known, but also the serious speech able to bring out an ironic view and critical opinions against HK education system. These were objectives mentioned in the leaflet of the show. Yet it failed. It was perhaps due to imbalance between the planned fun and the critique in his mind.
In addition, some fun was not expressed well because of imperfect performance. The actor did not say words fluently in some times. It seemed that he did not memorize his dialogue very well or the design of the dialogue was not fluent itself. In Act III, he needed to act as a maid, a mother, a father, a son and a daughter in turn by adjusting pitch of his voice. He mixed them up or did not prepare well to adjust his voice in some times, although it was a very serious challenge. It is known that the creative style of Woo's works are rough and coarse, very situable expression of HK society. It is not an excuse to have an unskilled performance, nevertheless.
The drama consisted of five acts and lasted for 90 minutes. It was a solo show by a famous local drama actor Chan Ho Fung (Chinese: 陳浩峰). Chan acted a private tutor, a computer user, a maid, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter and an idol by himself only. The actor weaved up his dialogue and lyrics by some jargon and slang of Confucianism, Hong Kong Education and youth, especially net generation peers. He gave a direct speech to express the situation of HK education in some parts. The show was like a Stand-up Comedy with a slight plot.
It was somehow funny but quite boring in some parts, especially in Act IV. I know it was the style of Woo, i.e. the crossover between the comedy and serious speech. I expected not only a list of facts we have known, but also the serious speech able to bring out an ironic view and critical opinions against HK education system. These were objectives mentioned in the leaflet of the show. Yet it failed. It was perhaps due to imbalance between the planned fun and the critique in his mind.
In addition, some fun was not expressed well because of imperfect performance. The actor did not say words fluently in some times. It seemed that he did not memorize his dialogue very well or the design of the dialogue was not fluent itself. In Act III, he needed to act as a maid, a mother, a father, a son and a daughter in turn by adjusting pitch of his voice. He mixed them up or did not prepare well to adjust his voice in some times, although it was a very serious challenge. It is known that the creative style of Woo's works are rough and coarse, very situable expression of HK society. It is not an excuse to have an unskilled performance, nevertheless.
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