I always take historical plays as my preferred repertoire, because a story with a historical background can facilitate the audience’s understanding of the play’s content, and actors are better facilitated to grasp the characterisation. As a librettist and artistic director, I find the historical background provides a useful framework for artistic creation, expression of ideas and the desired effects.
The Story of Jing Ke tells the story of Prince Dan and Jing Ke in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. I have always felt an inner calling to master the role of Prince Dan. Decades ago, when I first joined Master Chan Fei-nung’s Hong Kong Institute of Cantonese Opera, he let me perform one of the excerpts from Prince Dan’s Resistance against the Tyrannic Qin during the institute’s celebrations. I was still in my first year as an apprentice, and it was the first time I performed on stage. But the stage experience was monumental to me.
Lu Buwei – A Kingly Potential Asset is written by librettist Norman Cheung Chak-ming. It was he who invited me to be a scriptwriting instructor. This play won the Cantonese Opera Development Fund's Outstanding Script Award in the New Cantonese Opera Play Scriptwriting Competition in 2016, and was premiered in 2018. With Yuen Siu-fai and Wan Fai-yin as the main cast, I hope the restaging of this play will be an opportunity for the audience to appreciate again this very outstanding work in Cantonese Opera.
-- Ng Chin-fung
21 & 28.10.2022
Lu Buwei - A Kingly Potential Asset
Librettist, re-edited by: Norman Cheung Chak-ming
The story takes place towards the end of the Warring States period. Yiren, a minor prince of Qin, is held hostage in the Zhao State. Lu Buwei, a merchant, sees him as a rare commodity. He seeks Yiren out, befriends him and offers him his own concubine, Zhao Ji, who is already pregnant at the time. The baby is going to be later the First Emperor of Qin, Ying Zheng. Buwei sells all his assets and moves the whole family to the State of Qin. With his ingenious schemes, he succeeds in paving the way for Yiren’s return to his native country. A few years have passed. Yiren is declared heir to the throne, to which he ascends later. But he is poisoned to death by Buwei who wants to put Ying Zheng in his place. Zheng is only in his early teens, so his mother, Zhao Ji becomes regent. Buwei is highly regarded as his honoured ‘father figure’. Zheng grows up to be an intelligent young man with sharp political acumen. He also has the help of Li Si as strategist. So with the backup support of Buwei, they set a trap to get rid of Ying’s younger brother, Chengjiao, the true son of the Ying bloodline. This marks the total takeover of the Ying’s by the Lu’s. Lu Buwei, who started out as a mere merchant, succeeded in plotting a grand political scheme to take over the State of Qin. Although he came to a bad end, taking the bane of his own making, he has gone down in history as an entrepreneurial genius, and one of his kind.
Ng Chin-fung as Lu Buwei
Wan Fai-yin as Zhao Ji
Yuen Siu-fai as Li Si
Leung Wai-hong as Ying Yiren
Wan Yuk-yu as Fan Wuqi
Ko Lai as The Princess Consort
Vong Seng-pan as Ying Zheng
Wan Yiu-sing as Chengjiao
Chung Kui-man as Wang Jian
Kong Wing-hung as Jian Hua
Ng Sin-hang as Ying Zheng (Childhood)
15 & 29.10.2022
The Story of Jing Ke from The Warring States Chronicle
Librettist: Ng Chin-fung
Crown Prince Dan (? – 226 BCE), whose personal names include Ji Dan and Yan Dan, is the son of King Xi of Yan. On the eve of their neighbouring State of Han falling to the State of Qin, Dan orders Jing Ke to assassinate King Zheng of Qin.
The prince was previously hostage at the Qin court. He was repatriated to his Yan homeland after much humiliation. When the Qin army encroaches upon the Yan border at the Yi River, Dan seeks an assassin to kill their king. Dan initially approaches Tian Guang, who declines on the reason of his advanced age, but recommends Jing Ke in his place. Dan sends Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang to Qin under the pretext of surrendering the map of Dukang (the area comprising present-day Hebei’s Zhuoxian, Yixian and Gu’an) and presenting the head of Fan Wuji to King Zheng. In the Qin court, Jing Ke unrolls the map for the King to see, and hidden at the end of the scroll is a dagger. Jing Ke grabs it and aims at the throat of the King but fails. He is captured and executed by dismemberment.
Ng Chin-fung as Crown Prince Dan of Yan
Yuen Siu-fai as Jing Ke
Wan Fai-yin as Consort Yan
Leung Wai-hong as King of Yan (former) / Jing Ke’s mother (latter)
Wan Yuk-yu as Fan Wuji
Ko Lai as Jing Ke’s wife
Kwok Kai-fai as Tian Guang
Vong Seng-pan as Ge Nie
Wan Yiu-sing as Qin Wuyang
Ng Kwok-wa as Gao Jianli
Running Time: Approx. 3 hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
Information provided by the arts group.
Please refer to Chinese version.
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Tickets available from 15 September onwards at all URBTIX outlets, on internet, by mobile app My URBTIX (Android and iPhone versions) and telephone.
Half-price tickets available for senior citizens aged 60 and above, people with disabilities and the minder, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients. (Limited tickets for full-time students and CSSA recipients available on a first-come, first-served basis.)
Package Booking Discount: 10% off for each purchase of standard tickets for both performances of "Lu Buwei - A Kingly Potential Asset" and "The Story of Jing Ke" from "The Warring States Chronicle"
Group Booking Discount: 10% off for each purchase of 4-9 standard tickets; 15% off for 10-19 standard tickets; 20% off for 20 or more standard tickets.
Patrons can enjoy only one of the above discount offers.
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The presenter reserves the right to change the programme and substitute artists.
The programme does not represent the views of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
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Telephone Registration Only
starting from 10am on 26.9.2022 (Mon)
Pre-performance Talk
Date: 10 October 2022 (Mon)
Venue: AC2, Level 4, Administration Building, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Time: 7:30pm
Speaker: Ng Chin-fung, Wan Fai-yin
(In Cantonese)
Post-performance Talk
Date: 2 November 2022 (Wed)
Venue: AC2, Level 4, Administration Building, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Time: 7:30pm
Speaker: Ng Chin-fung
(In Cantonese)
Registration:
- Date & Time: from 10am on 26 Sepember 2022 (Mon), till quota lasts. (Free admission. Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.)
- Telephone: 2268 7267 (Mon-Fri: 10am-1pm, 2-5:30pm; except public holidays)
- Quota: Each person can reserve one seat for each talk. Name and contact telephone number are required upon registration.
- Reserved seat(s) will be released if any registered person does not show up at the venue within 10 minutes after the commencement of the talk.
15.10.2022 (Sat) 19:30
$320,$260,$200,$140
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