Tickets for the 32nd Macao Arts Festival (MAF), organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, went on sale simultaneously through the Macau Ticketing Network outlets, telephone and online booking from 10am on 3 April. Tickets for a number of programmes were sold out, including The Phantom of Liaozhai, The Vanished Figures, Grandma’s Treasure Box, I Am a Moon and some sessions of the shows Carlos I and Xiao Ke. This year’s MAF has received an enthusiastic response from the public and sales reached a satisfactory result as more than 5,500 tickets were sold up until 4 April, which accounted for nearly 60% of the total number of tickets. Many programmes were highly sought after and tickets for over 9 shows were sold out.
In order to cooperate with the epidemic prevention and control measures, the organizer launched diverse ticketing channels, including ticketing service at the outlets and online booking, simultaneously this year. In order to reduce crowd gathering onsite, offer the public a convenient ticketing service and to safeguard the public health, an online reservation system has been set up for the first day of ticket sales. The opening performance Free Man from the South and the closing performance Liza Wang and the Macao Chinese Orchestra were highly sought after. Local performances Love Cruise and The Story of Kong Yiji had an enthusiastic response. The public is advised to purchase their tickets as soon as possible as tickets for some of the programmes are limited.
This edition of the MAF, themed “Invigorate”, will continue to focus on programmes from Macao and Mainland China. Electra, jointly produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and a Greek production team, is a classic play written by Sophocles, one of the three great ancient Greek tragedians, reproducing the original classic. Adapted from the eponymous film, the new Shanghai-style Peking opera New Dragon Inn is produced by Shi Yihong, an accomplished qingyi actress of the Mei school from Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company, who also plays two roles in the production, breaking with tradition in an innovative way. The multimedia soundscape theatre Nine Soundscapes by the Macau Experimental Theatre depicts the ups and downs of the city with the nine tones of Cantonese. The dance theatre piece Vaster Far than the Ocean is jointly produced by dancers from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In this production, Stella & Artists will combine dance and traditional bamboo scaffolding and explore the possibilities of the dancers’ bodies on the bamboo scaffolding installation.
Every year, the MAF offers different programmes for children and families to explore art together. A number of excellent programmes such as the interactive family play Doodle POP which takes audiences of all ages on a journey under the sea in search of a little sea turtle; and the children’s musical The Story of Kong Yiji by the Little Mountain Arts Association, based on the eponymous story Kong Yiji by Lu Xun, are also not to be missed.
For more information about the programmes, ticket purchase and other discounts, please visit the MAF’s website (www.icm.gov.mo/fam); follow the respective page on Facebook (search “Macao Arts Festival”), or subscribe to IC’s official WeChat account (IC_Art_Macao). Ticketing hotline: 2855 5555. Online ticket reservation is available at www.macauticket.com.
© Macau Experimental Theatre
©Yin Xuefeng