Hong Kong Repertory Theatre 2025-26 Season | Flower．Vanguard．Silence

Hong Kong Repertory Theatre 2025-26 Season
Flower．Vanguard．Silence
Advance Booking from 27 March with up to 30% Discount

【HKRep】The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre announced its 2025‒26 season with the theme “Flower．Vangaurd．Silence” on 24th March, with diverse productions of local classics, international dramas and original new works affirming its commitment to “balanced programming”, incorporating tradition and innovation, and touring fine dramas internationally and around mainland China, reaching theatre lovers everywhere.
 
HKRep Artistic Director Poon Wai Sum says, “Those moments between a flower blooming and wilting, between appearing and disappearing, between sunrise and sunset, between the curtain’s rising and falling, between you and me... These are blossoms that are transient. Together they make our Main Stage offerings. The vanguard stands at the tip of an iceberg, a microcosm of the world, the embodiment of ingenuity, delineating a tortuous path, leading the charge, calling to duty. On this road to theatrical innovation, vanguards are represented in our Black Box Productions. Amidst the clamour, silence hides in the loudest of places, just as Lao Tzu said, “Great sounds are barely audible; great images have no shape”. No matter whether you’re in a grand theatre or a studio space, there is always silence. It makes great theatre.
 
It has been three years since I assumed the mantle of the HKRep. In the past two seasons, I wrote extensively about the season’s offerings, continuing our tradition while working with the HKRep team to craft our future. For now, I’ll keep my words to a minimum and get to work, putting on beautiful dramas, one after another. Onward we go!”
 
Highlights of the 2025‒26 season:

• Poon Wai Sum and Lee Chun Chow collaborate on the opening programme The Tamed and the Tempted
• An all-round sensory theatrical experience with arts tech in The Story of K City
• Hong Kong’s original musical The Impossible Trial returns triumphant and tours Shanghai and Beijing
• The third of French renowned playwright Florian Zeller’s “family trilogy”, Le Fils, receives its Hong Kong premiere
• After a decade, the classic The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man penned by Poon Wai Sum and directed by Roy Szeto lands on the stage again
• Award-winning black comedy The Bucket appears in an updated production, also launching its mainland tour
• Vacant Possession makes its debut at the HKRep Black Box, inciting more laughter in the theatre
• In the Text Testing Zone, Love Out of Reach and Fall and Flow shine a light on the power of the dramatic script

Main Stage Productions

The Tamed and the Tempted
Inside a restaurant, men and women mingle, testing each other’s wit. There may be happy talk during the meal, but ominous undercurrents linger. When a man believes he has a winning hand, a woman smiles and flips the chessboard. Love stories do not apply here; being coy is a trap; behind a smile is a snare. As glasses clink amidst rounds of toasts, scenarios turn at every whim. Who wins at the end in this game of “taming”?
 
After The Diary of Song and Moscow Express, Artistic Director Poon Wai Sum and Lee Chun Chow reunite, distilling the secrets of human character in a world steeped in magical realism. (17th May to 1st June 2025 at Hong Kong City Hall Theatre)
 
The Story of K City
Following the success of Buried Child in 2017, the HKRep invites Travis Preston, former Dean of the CalArts School of Theater and Founding Artistic Director for the CalArts Center for New Performance, to return to direct this devised theatre adaptation of Artistic Director Poon Wai Sum’s fantasy novel about K City, deconstructing the textual mysteries in search of hidden spiritual realms with arts tech elements. Together they create a new stage aesthetic in an all-round sensory experience. (29th July to 10th August 2025 at The Box, Freespace, WestK)
 
This programme is funded under the Arts Technology Funding Pilot Scheme by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

The Impossible Trial – a musical
Fong Tong Geng, Guangdong’s most prominent advocate, is known for his greed and malice. But at the height of his career heaven deals him a blow and his reputation and wealth are lost overnight. Haunted by the bitter ghost of a childhood friend, Fong fights his way back to the magistrate to right his wrongs and redeem himself as the champion of the common man.
 
Commissioned by WestK, co-presented and co-produced with WestK, The Impossible Trial – a musical premiered in 2022 and re-ran the following year to tremendous critical acclaim, winning a total of 10 categories at the 31st Hong Kong Drama Awards. In recent years, it has earned a total of fourteen major awards at various award ceremonies in Mainland China. The year 2025 welcomes the return of this popular production. The team’s years of hard work built a work totally imbued with Hong Kong characteristics, an unprecedented milestone for local musical theatre. (June to August 2025, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong)
 
The Impossible Trial – a musical is selected for 2025 China National Arts Fund Supported Project
 
Le Fils
When a marriage breaks up, a happy family is shattered. An anxious son becomes listless, his psychological troubles compounding still further. Seeing his original family structure disintegrating, he cannot fit into a new mode of being. Troubled that no one in the family understands him, he hides behind lies, sliding even closer to the point of no return…
 
Le Fils is written by renowned French playwright Florian Zeller, the final installment of his “family trilogy”. It was nominated for the France’s Crystal Globe Award and made into a 2022 film. The Hong Kong premiere, directed by HKRep Assistant Artistic Director Yau Ting Fai, lays bare to the audiences the difficulties of reuniting broken lives and of intimacy plagued by estrangement. This production is title sponsored by Shun Hing Group. (27th September to 12th October 2025 at Hong Kong City Hall Theatre)
 
The Bucket
During a “fake” renaissance era, four relatively accomplished “Westerners” become comrades. Though lost in their ways, they drift through life with a smattering of art. They then decide to emulate the ancients in swearing a blood oath: “We ask not the same year, month and day of birth; but wish to die on the same year, month and day.” When one of them dies on the spot, their oath becomes a curse…
 
The Bucket transfers from our Black Box to the Main Stage this year, continuing the collaboration between playwright Hui Jim and up-and-coming director Kingston Lo. Together they incite laughter and tears with their absurdist humour. This play was nominated for five awards at the 15th Hong Kong Theatre Libre, winning Outstanding Performance, Outstanding Playwright and Outstanding Director. This production has also received total nine nominations in the recently announced IATC(HK) Critics Awards 2024 and the 33rd Hong Kong Drama Awards. This programme will make its Mainland China tour in October 2025. (14th to 23rd November 2025 at Tuen Mun Town Hall Cultural Activities Hall)

The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man
During the reign of Qing Emperor Tongzhi, the eunuch An Dehai was an all-powerful aide to the Empress Dowager. Using the excuse of procuring a dragon robe to leave the Forbidden City, he was arraigned by the magistrate Ding Baozhen while travelling in Shandong. As messengers dart from one place to another, An’s fate is on the edge of a precipice… will he survive? There may be a flicker of hope in the royal court, but others want him dead. Everything hangs by a thread…
 
The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man premiered in 2013 and won six accolades at the 23rd Hong Kong Drama Awards. The script depicts real characters in the Qing court reflecting the world at large, highlighting the complexity of human character and relationships. Roy Szeto returns to direct this story of a unique dynastic episode along with distinct sets and staging, retelling a piece of history as penned by Poon Wai Sum. This programme is sponsored by Chow Sang Sang. (22nd March to 5th April 2026 at Hong Kong Arts Centre Shouson Theatre)
 
 
Black Box Production

Vacant Possession
As a lease ends, one can’t help but feel lonesome returning the keys. Yet this vacant property turns into an “inauspicious abode”: As the owner, old and new renters, estate agent and prospective buyer gather—each with different ambitions—a fatal accident descends upon them. Everything’s amok, fate’s gone topsy-turvy. Will misfortune turn into positive gains? Just wait and see.
 
Young playwright Hui Jim is adept in dark humour, capturing the complexity of the human condition while extracting laughter and tears among theatregoers. Vacant Possession received positive response in our Text Testing Zone (2024‒25 season). This production has also received five nominations in the 33rd Hong Kong Drama Awards and IATC(HK) Critics Awards 2024. This season, the play transfers to our Black Box as a fully-fledged production. Director Lau Shau Ching captured the gentleness and power of every plot twist amidst raucous laughter, breathing new life to this inexplicable real estate saga. (9th to 24th January 2026 at HKREP Black Box)
 
  
Text Testing Zone Productions
It is a groundbreaking initiative providing a unique opportunity for up-and-coming playwrights to put on new works with simple staging and technical support. The aim is to test the quality of their creations while offering a platform for revising and refining their scripts.
 
Love Out of Reach
In 2020, COVID put a halt on the entire world. Normal life turned around 180 degrees: day had turned into night as we embarked in uncharted territory. Building 60 of Tokyo’s Sunshine City is closed because of the pandemic, yet an unexpected guest turns up intent to reach the rooftop as the building’s janitor tries to stop her. Why would anyone break into this place that is out-of-bounds? What unspeakable secret lies there?
 
Love Out of Reach, written by mainland theatre practitioner He Yufan, was a submitted script of Project Kite. From the earth to Pluto, from daughter to father, this is an imaginative script inviting audiences to contemplate how far love travels. (9th to 24th May 2025 at HKRep Black Box)
 
Fall and Flow
Construction worker Chen San has a daughter who is mortally ill. In order to save her, he must find money. Thus Chen asked his colleague Li Poxiao to create a profile on a crowdfunding page. This online version of his “alternative daughter” becomes an internet sensation, touching the hearts of many… But is that his real daughter? Time passes in an hourglass. In this imaginary bubble, can father and daughter find real slivers of hope? Young Shanghai playwright Huang Ruishuo’s work is deep and incisive. (7th to 22nd November 2025 at HKRep Black Box)
  
2025-26 Season Offering Up to 30% Discount for the Advance Booking 
Advance Booking tickets will be made available at POPTICKET.HK from 27th  March to 8th April 2025. Advance booking discounts apply to all Main Stage programmes and Black Box programmes except The Impossible Trial – a musical. Please refer to：http://www.hkrep.com/2526 for details.
  
The new season brochure is available on www.hkrep.com/2526. Subscription programme enquiry: 3103 5900 
 
 
Programme Sponsors
The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the generous sponsorship and support from the following organisations: (in alphabetical order)
 
Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited
Crystal Climate Charity Foundation 
Shun Hing Group

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