BackPanasonic proudly sponsors Principle - A school scandal that’s tricky to untangle, where’s the line between emotions and reason under the rules?
Panasonic proudly sponsors Principle
A school scandal that’s tricky to untangle
Where’s the line between emotions and reason under the rules?
【HKRep】No one can help but be embroiled in a campus crisis about to explode. Principles are set to counterbalance emotions, but how do they affect individuals? How can the school principal assuage public outrage? How can teachers uphold their profession in the eye of the storm? Should students risk their future putting up a fight? Principle first came into being in our Reader’s Theatre in 2016, bolting onto our Black Box Theatre stage the following year. By 2018, the play was produced at the Hong Kong City Hall Theatre. Early this year, the production travelled to Singapore’s Huayi Festival, where tickets sold out in record time. In the intervening years, the script was retooled and refined, with powerful dialogue and plotlines generating tremendous resonance, inspiring the audience to delve deeper into the issues. Nominated for the 2017 Hong Kong Theatre Libre for Best Script, Principle was selected as an “Excellent Production” at the 2018 Hong Kong Drama Awards, and Ko Hon Man (as the vice principal) won the 2019 Shanghai One Drama Awards as Best Actor. Principle has consistently garnered praise and critical acclaim at every turn. Written by Ivan Kwok and directed by Fong Chun Kit, Principle features Lui Si Lan, Ko Hon Man, Chris Sun, Wong Suet Ip and Poon Tai Ming. This production revival runs from October 2nd through October 10th at the Hong Kong City Hall Theatre. Tickets are available now from URBTIX outlets.
Soon after she starts her job, a new principal (played by Lui Si Lan) establishes a host of new rules, upsetting both staff and students. Gossip swirls that the new principal and vice principal are at loggerheads, poisoning the school’s atmosphere. An accident leads to the popular vice principal’s transfer, angering the student body, who demands an official explanation. A place that nurtures the next generation is now plagued by intrigue. Exams are looming, yet a student movement is about to unleash on the community. How should the principal, vice principal, teachers, school board, student council and students handle the crisis? How can they search for a truth that will be accepted by others?
About Playwright Ivan Kwok
Ivan Kwok graduated from the School of Drama of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 2016 with a Master of Fine Arts (Honours) in Playwriting. While at the HKAPA, he was awarded a Sam Leung’s Studio scholarship; he was also a three-time recipient of the Cheung Tat Ming Playwriting Scholarship. Kwok’s Principle was nominated for Best Script at the 2018 Hong Kong Theatre Libre Awards, 2019 Hong Kong Drama Awards and 2019 Shanghai One Drama Awards. At the 2019 Hong Kong Theatre Libre Awards, his True Lies won Best Script. Ivan Kwok was nominated for “Script/Playwright of the Year” at the 2020 IATC (HK) Critics Awards.
His recent output includes such plays as Brilliant Fireworks Tonight – The Story of Old Beijing (Theatre Baal), Way Up to the Sky and Principle (HKRep), True Lies (HKAPA and Poor Guy Diary) and The State & Denki (Our Theatre x Theatre Space, co-written with Hsu Cheng-Ping). His translated scripts include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Mourning Becomes Electra (New Directors’ Movement, Theatre Horizon) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Project Roundabout).
About Director Fong Chun Kit
Fong Chun Kit graduated from the School of Drama of the HKAPA in 2010 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) Degree, majoring in Directing.
His graduation project, Taming of the Shrew, won HKAPA’s “Outstanding Director 2009/2010” award. Three Men and a Lady (which he wrote, directed and performed) was nominated for Best Script at the 2011 Hong Kong Theatre Libre Awards. In 2016, Fong was nominated in the Best Director (Tragedy/Drama) category at the 25th Hong Kong Drama Awards for his work in The Marriage. The following year, he won Best Director (Comedy/Satire) at the Hong Kong Drama Awards for The Truth from Liar. In 2018, he won Best Director at the Hong Kong Drama Awards for Sing Out and Best Director at the Hong Kong Theatre Libre for Lysistrata.
Fong’s directorial output includes Auspicious Day, The Marriage, The Last Supper (premiere, three revivals and international touring totalling more than 100 performances) and Secrets of the 81/2 Floor for the HKRep; The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Project Roundabout); My Very Short Marriage (Dharma Workshop); The Truth from Liar, Sins, Forget Me Not, Monsters and Monsters (re-run) for the Artocrite Theater; Hong Kong Trilogy (Hong Kong Arts Festival); Sing Out (premiere and revival, Lee Hysan Foundation); Xi Yang Zhan Shi (Dionysus Contemporary Theatre) and Le dieu du carnage (premiere and revival, plus Singapore tour, Dionysus Contemporary Theatre); Lysistrata and Taming of the Shrew (HKAPA); Red Sky (Chung Ying Theatre); Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (Windmill Grass Theatre) and Avenue Q (premiere and revival, Windmill Grass Theatre); The Goat (premiere and revival, We Draman); Three Men and a Lady (premiere and revival, also as playwright and actor, Three Men Play); Twelfth Night (premiere and revival, tobe THEATRE) and With Love, William Shakespeare (premiere, revival and touring totalling more than 100 performances, also as playwright, Theatre Noir).
Currently a freelance theatre artist, Fong is co-founder of tobe THEATRE. He joins the HKRep as Resident Director in October 2020.
Media Enquiries:
