WTF are you thinking HK Arts Festival?!!!

This is my official response on this. Early Bird Bookings are a necissity for HK Arts Festival but anyone can tell you it's a serious pain in the ass to do it. You have to coordinate with your friends about what they want to see. One of you gets stuck paying for it on your credit card and you have to wait for the person to give you the money. On top of everything you never know if you're getting the first or second choice in seating. ANNOYING but it was a system that worked. And it's how I secured my Juliet Binoche tickets, my Pina Bausche tickets and my Robert Wilson tickets in previous years.

Now, some "genius" at the HK Arts Festival decided to make the Early Bird Bookings in releases. You only a certain number of programs available at a time to purchase. You're not going to have the whole catalog available until after the counters open. Which means all your abilities to do discounts for large ticket purchases are going to be impossible. Apparently, they don't want me seeing 15 shows again...

Our first release opened today and we have access to three of the programs.
None that I am excited about... So, I guess I'm sitting on my ass waiting until someone decides to let the other shows come available for sale...

Thanks HK Arts Festival! This was your best idea-yet.
Well besides having a HK Arts Festival with 70% of the performing groups being from other countries...

http://www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/book/early-bird

Review- The Truth About Lying- HK Art Festival

I was really excited to this show. It was the winner for Best Script, Best Performance and Leading Actress of 2010. This was also the winner of a lot of awards at the 2011 Hong Kong Drama Awards. Playwright, Wong Wing-sze was the recipient of one of the largest arts grants in Hong Kong to help produce this piece. I wanted to see what the board was awarding the money to and what all the buzz was about. Expectations were set high for this show; I paid close to 400HKD to see it and I wanted to see a good show. People were really talking it up as one of the best things to come along in local Hong Kong drama in the past few years. My local "Canto gay" and I went to see it; in case I didn't understand some of the jokes I thought it best to have an interpreter.

Presented by Hong Kong Arts Festival in partnership with author/director Wong Wing-sze it was supposed to be a dramatic look at relationships both work/romantic from the view of the protagonist, Emily who is working at a high power law firm. I can understand the plight of the working woman in HK as an interesting concept for a piece but the story line seemed predictable at best.

Design wise it was beautiful. I though the set design was good and I thought the lighting design was well conceived. I think the use of working lights hanging above the actors as part of the set was rather ingenious as it seemed to put a feng shui feel onto the entirety of the set. Costumes were chic and simple. Yours basic HK business wear, suits, heels and ties. People looked expensive, people looked like those fancy people you see walking around IFC at 11am on a Thursday. All the great design in the world couldn't save it in my mind...

Review- Momix Dance Theatre

The last show of my Hong Kong Arts Festival adventure was a night with the Momix Dance Theatre: Momix reMix. The Momix show was a collection of their greatest hits arranged into a two hour piece. Momix was founded by Moses Pendleton who was one of the founding members of Pilobolus Dance Theatre in the seventies. Momix was founded by him in 1980. Momix has been featured on PBS several times on various dance presents specials.

Review- Carnations- Pina Bausch

"I am not interested in how people move, but what moves them."- Pina Bausch

The men jumped and lept like bunnies within the field, until they were told to stop by a societal figure.

Review- 108 Heroes- Shanghai Theatre Academy

A reinterpretation of the classic Chinese story

When I go to a Hong Kong Arts Festival Show I go with expectations. They are supposed to be the best of the best from all over the world. My roomie Michael and I saw the ads for 108 Heroes: Tales of the Water Margin online when we bought our tickets through pre-sales. It was advertised as a kung fu, rock/roll infused Peking-rock opera. Having seen Peking Opera and Canto Opera before I was excited to see a modern style opera as the traditional ones aren't particularly my style of theatre to enjoy. I wouldn't say that 108 Heroes was a bad show, it just wasn't great... And when I spend money on HKAF tickets I want to see great shows.

Review- Being Harold Pinter- Belarus Free Theatre

The characters are trapped! Very 6 character in search for an author!

Belarus Free Theatre was founded in 2005 by playwright  Mikalai Khalezin, created under a dictatorship everything about their work is daring and about performing as if they will be shot the next day for their work. They create with abandon and with a reckless style which is beautiful and sad at the same time. The performance of Being Harold Pinter was an original work of the Belarus Theatre in tribute to their patron Harold Pinter. It is a collection of monologues and ten minute plays written by Pinter put together with his Nobel Prize Speech for Literature and some letters from some Belarusian prisoners.

Review- The Threepenny Opera- Robert Wilson

The Brothel Scene in Act Two, The red boards continued to rise over the course of 10 minutes.

This week I saw the greatest show I have ever seen and I didn't understand a single word of it. My roomie Michael and I went and saw Robert Wilson's The Threepenny Opera at HK Arts Festival. Performed by the Berliner Ensemble, uncut, in the original German it was one of the most visually stunning productions I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  The only negative thing about it was it took two hours for the first intermission to come and I really had to pee by the end of it! Some audience members simply didn't have the stamina for a 3 1/2 hours of German, avant guarde theatre and left! We stuck it out though and were rewarded with an experience theatrically we will never forget!

HK Arts Festival

Hk Arts festival happens every year in Hong Kong. It is my favorite time of year because I can see brilliant productions in many languages and expose myself to as many different types of theatre as I can in a month.

Are any of you going to the Arts Festival in Hong Kong?
Or do you hit a theatre festival every year?

This Year's Productions
1. Robert Wilson's "Three Penny" SOOOO Excited!
2. Pina Bausch production
3. A Kung Fu/ Hip Hop Fusion piece
4. Belaruz Avant Guarde Theatre
5. Beijing Ballet
6. Powerplant Visual Art production- more performance art which I typically hate but I'm going to try again.