The Story of K City | Bursting into a magical world of poetry and text | A journey that intwines seeing, hearing and feeling

Bursting into a magical world of poetry and text 
A journey that intwines seeing, hearing and feeling 
The Story of K City

 
【HKRep】This summer, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre combines text and art tech in a unique immersive theatre production. Urban stories and memories are imaginatively transformed and presented in overlapping layers of music, projection and lighting, with tempos that vary from fast and intense to silent and tranquil, welcoming audiences into a world of prose and poetry, inspiring them to reexamine urban life through an all-round sensory experience. Following the 2017 production of Buried Child, 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 The Story of K City, a devised theatrical adaptation of Artistic Director Poon Wai Sum’s fantasy novella featuring actors Mercy Wong, Karrie Tan, Cheung Ka Ying, Ng Ka Leung, Yu Hon Ting, Wong Hiu Yee, Luk Ka Ki, Eva Mak, Dee To, Angus Chan, Kalok Chan, Chan Kiu, Poon Tai Ming, Eddy Au Yeung and Trickle Choi. The production runs from 29^th July to 10^th August at The Box, Freespace, WestK. Tickets are now at POPTICKET.HK. This programme is funded under the Arts Technology Funding Pilot Scheme by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
 
The Story of K City: Based on the novella by HKRep Artistic Director Poon Wai Sum, The Story of K City traces a dream-like journey of the character Forget-Me-Not, who bears witness to the relationship between a city and its people, touching on childhood and fleeting fun times, the sorrow of being forgotten and the feeling of being alone. In this work, audiences can find hope, indifference or peace amidst a city’s hustle and bustle. Deconstructing the text as devised theatre, this work searches for a spiritual and soulful space using such art tech devises as real-time video, 3D soundscape, motion tracking, AI image processing to enrich stage aesthetics, extending art tech possibilities in contemporary stagecraft, introducing innovative ideas and infinite possibilities to the audience.
 
Original & Concept Poon Wai Sum shares the creative concept behind this production: “Director Travis Preston is an expert in utilising art tech on stage. When we first discussed this collaboration, he requested an innovative script and I provided him with K City. Only after his selection of this novella did I admit to him I was the author. That was how this project began. Although the story is short, he has injected many performance elements involving art tech that move and morph with the plot, creating an even richer Story of K City on stage.”
 
Director Travis Preston states: “My work as a director is dedicated to the discovery of new methods and forms of theater creation. When Poon Wai Sum gave me his story to consider as the source of a performance, I knew immediately that it was an opportunity to create a visual poem of profound emotional impact. Text, music, movement, video and scenography contribute equally to the building of the imaginative landscape of K City – all mediated by the gifted actors of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. Together they open radically unique possibilities to expand and enrich the tools of theatrical storytelling.”
 
About Original & Concept Poon Wai Sum
Prior to becoming the Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in 2023, Poon Wai Sum held the post of Dean of the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2017 to 2022, after having served as Resident Playwright and Discipline Leader of Dramatic Writing from 2012 to 2017. Previously, he was the Artistic Director of Prospects Theatre Company from 1993 to 2012. He was awarded the Drama Practitioner Annual Achievement Award in 1999 and the Award for Arts Achievement in 2003 from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and was awardee of the Secretary for Home Affairs’ Recommendation Scheme in 2006. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and a member of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. 
 
His recent award-winning plays include Moscow Express, The Diary of Song, Hu Xue Yan, my Dear and The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man. His publications include The Insects Series – An Anthology of Plays by Poon Wai Sum, Man of Tiger – A Collection of Short Stories by Poon Wai Sum, Poon Wai Sum: The Two-Handed – The Diary of Song, Confrontations and The Isle.
 
About Director Travis Preston 
Travis Preston is an internationally celebrated director of theater and opera. He is the Founding Artistic Director of CalArts Center for New Performance, the Executive Director of Three Friends/One Spirit, and the former Dean of the CalArts School of Theater. He is also a member of the Artistic Committee of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in China and serves on the international advisory board of TR Warszawa in Poland. He just completed the world premiere production of American Mother in Germany. This opera composed by Charlotte Bray with a libretto by Colum McCann has received critical acclaim throughout Europe and will be touring in the coming year.  
 
In addition to his production of Buried Child at the Hong Kong Rep, Travis Preston’s many productions include Macbeth with Stephen Dillane at the Almeida Theatre in London and the Sydney and Adelaide Festivals in Australia, Boris Godounov and Luigi Nono’s Al Gran Sole Carico D’Amore at the Hamburg State Opera, the world premiere of Fantomas: Revenge of the Image at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Prometheus Bound with Ron Cephas Jones at the Getty Villa, The Master Builder at the Almeida Theater (with Stephen Dillane and Gemma Arterton), the world premiere of Augustine Machine by Marie Darrieussecq in Paris, as well as directing the opening gala performance of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. Travis Preston was awarded Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture for “contributions to the arts in France and throughout the world.”

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