The 29th Macao Arts Festival is themed on “Origin” which symbolizes the spring of life and explores a wide range of topics to broaden audiences’ thinking on life. There are a total of 26 programmes in seven categories this year, bringing amazing international, national and local works together. It includes “Thematic Highlights: Origin”, “Groundbreakers: Connection”, “Cross-disciplinary Creations: Theatre”, “Family Entertainment”, “Quintessence of Tradition”, “Melodious Music”, and “Exhibition”. With outreach activities that promote arts in the community, the Festival presents more than 100 shows in total. Here are six shows you must not miss this year.
Grand Opening Das Kapital: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (China)
(See featured image)
The well-established duo, playwright Nick Rongjun Yu, and director He Nian, turn the classic work of Karl Marx, Capital, into a theater play. Incorporating abstruse theories with hotly debated social topics, like the financial crisis and high property prices, the play explicates the two sides with dark humor. In the transformation from a traditional play to a theater of the absurd, elaborating various issues from politics, economy, and superstructure to celebrity and family gossips in a realistic yet detached approach; it gradually exposes that capital has a major role to play in this absurdity.
When: 8:00pm, Friday and Saturday, April 27 and 28
Where: Grand Auditorium, Macao Cultural Centre
How much: MOP $380, MOP $300, MOP $250, MOP $120
Host: Eisa Jocson (The Philippines)
In the hostess clubs of Tokyo, Filipino women and transgender hostesses engage in “affective labor” by performing a version of femininity that caters to Japanese salarymen and employing mimetic strategies and a mix of identities to survive and succeed. Eisa is a contemporary choreographer and dancer based in Manila. Leading audiences to observe the relations between body, gender, labor, society, and commercialization in a visual feast of dance with her unique dance movements.
When: 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13
Where: 2nd Floor, Old Court Building
How much: MOP $250
The Trojan Women: Suzuki Company of Toga (Japan)
Tadashi Suzuki’s staging of The Trojan Women is structured around a solitary old woman, sitting alone in a cemetery moments before her death, as she flashes back on the miserable fate of all families massacred by war. Their grim destiny, as evoked by the old woman, materializes on stage as the tale of The Trojan Women. Tadashi Suzuki is the founder and Director of the Suzuki Company of Toga, based in Toga Village in the mountains of Toyama prefecture.
When: 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13
Where: Grand Auditorium, Macao Cultural Centre
How much: MOP $300, MOP $250, MOP $180, MOP $120
Home Sweet Home: Subject to change (United Kingdom)
Have you ever wondered what your dream house will look like? The interactive installation from Subject to change from the United Kingdom gives you an opportunity to become an architect and construct your dream residence with innovative materials, tools, and decorations from the nearby Supply Shed. Through the entire duration, you can visit the community every day and inspect for any changes. Don’t miss the party held in the community to mark the end of the show, where you can celebrate the completion of the town with your neighbors. Feel free to bring your dream house home after the event.
When: 8:00pm, Saturday—Tuesday, May 19—22
Where: Exhibition Hall, Old Court Building
How much: MOP $160
The Trial by Kafka: Sadari Movement Laboratory (Republic of Korea)
Stepping beyond conventional theater dialogues, Sadari Movement Laboratory is committed to physical theater and believes actors can express the social and psychological states of their characters more poignantly through separate spaces and dynamic rhythms. They bring new life to the original text via kinetic images they have explored and created through collaboration.
When: 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and 27
Where: Small Auditorium, Macao Cultural Centre
How much: MOP $200, MOP $150
13 Tongues: Cloud Gate 2 (Taiwan)
Commissioned by the Taiwan International Festival of Arts in 2016, 13 Tongues is Cheng Tsung-lung’s first full-length work with Cloud Gate 2. His 13 Tongues brings back the vigorous and exuberant vitality of Bangka: howls on the streets, old Taiwanese folk songs in the air, chanting of incantation, and a religious procession of worshippers. On stage, against the projection of a massive kite flittering in the sky, dancers stamp and clap with rhythms, whirl around and move across the stage like an enchanted troop, presenting a bizarre spectrum of physical movements.
When: 8:00pm, Saturday, May 26
Where: Grand Auditorium, Macao Cultural Centre
How much: MOP $380, MOP $300, MOP $250, MOP $120
For more details please visit www.icm.gov.mo
