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When it comes to the performing arts, it’s hard to beat March, thanks to the Hong Kong Arts Festival

When it comes to the performing arts, it’s hard to beat March, thanks to the Hong Kong Arts Festival

You could be forgiven for thinking March is all about the visual arts, thanks to the Art Basel juggernaut of the past few years, but the Hong Kong Arts Festival has been delivering a smorgasbord of the performing arts, from opera and dance to theatre and music, since 1973—and the 47th edition lights up the month with numerous highlights.

One is Home, a theatrical performance in the loosest sense of the word. It’s an ingenious combination of choreography, music and engineering masterminded by American actor and theatre artist Geoff Sobelle. The idea for the piece came to Sobelle when he was laying a new floor in his kitchen. In stripping away the linoleum tiles, he discovered layer upon layer of old flooring—a reminder that he had inherited his home from previous generations of owners. The theatrical production Home presents multiple generations of owners coexisting at once in a modest apartment that’s constructed onstage before the audience’s eyes.

Touching the Void, based on the bestselling book by Joe Simpson and directed by Tony Award-winner Tom Morris, is a play that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats, with a journey up the 6,344-metre Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

Another show not to be missed is composer Zhou Long’s acclaimed adaptation of the Chinese folk tale Madame White Snake into an opera. One of the four major Chinese folk tales, Madame White Snake recounts a demon’s quest for love against the odds. Zhou’s score for Madame White Snake, which features a Western orchestra and some additional traditional Chinese instruments, won him the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Fans of Cantonese opera are in a for a treat, with Cuba’s Havana Divas Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong Gutierrez (pictured), sharing the stage with Cantonese opera veterans Choy Him-heong from Malaysia and Danny Li from Hong Kong.

Other performances of note include 887, an autobiographical play by Canadian playwright Robert Lepage, an energising rendition of classical and jazz pieces by Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, and the return of the Hamburg Ballet, which will be staging three different shows.

The Hong Kong Arts Festival runs until March 23, with performances taking place at various venues across the city. hk.artsfestival.org