Justin: Ding Yiteng
Angela: Kang Tongge
Jimmy: Wang Dingyi
Mei: Huang Yizi
Man: Zhang Jiahuai
Dancer: Liu Shang
Host: Kang Yutian

A piano dented by high heels, a bruised apple on the shelf, a body covered by hickeys, and the Moon that is around 400,000 kilometres away from the Earth – what do they have in common?

An office worker who has lost his admired actress, a female student who loves to peep at her neighbour, a rock singer with hickeys all over his body, a fruit store owner and his wife who met in college, and an astronaut who wishes to set foot on the Moon… each of them navigates the complexities of their longings in the moonlight.

Six independent yet interrelated stories are weaved into a poetic journey into the beauty of the ugly sides of these characters with dark humour.

We all were a small perfect lump of flesh when we were born, and time has left different kinds of traces on us: scars caused by stumbles, imprint marks on the nose bridge from glasses, fingers stained by cigarettes, calluses on the heels from wearing stilettos, a tattoo with the nasty ex-boyfriend’s name, and five pounds gained over the Spring Festival… all these have gradually shaped who we are. Just like the moon, a beautiful bright sphere when looked at from afar, is covered with dense craters – each and every one of them was caused by a collision – which are visible only when you get close enough. Entering someone’s life can sometimes be as hard and long as the moon landing.

By Zhu Yi

I think it is impossible for pain to disappear; it may be eased or resolved but can never disappear. Painful experiences will be imprinted on our body and stay with us forever, for example, a wound on our face or an injury on our hand, which will become a scab, a scar, and eventually a mark on our body. They will only increase like craters on the moon, but the moon itself will carry on revolving, keep us company and light up the dark nights as always. It is not as bright as the sun but it is not dim either, which is enough for us already.

When I read the script of I Am a Moon for the first time, I already developed a relatively clear concept of audio and visual aesthetics in my mind. The moon landing scene that runs throughout the play creates a sense of ceremony that is austere yet rather futuristic. The absurd characters and seemingly irrelevant bustling scenes are designed with dream-like pink and warm colours, giving me a bizarre sense of urbanism and detachment. My relationship with this play gradually changed along with my further comprehension of this work and rehearsals with the actors. During the creation process, I immersed myself in the ambience created between the work and I to let my feelings flow freely.

By Ding Yiteng

I Am a Moon is a poetic production in which the journey to the moon is used as a metaphor for the search of the self. Written by US-based Chinese playwright Zhu Yi, this play combines the unique sentiment of solitude expressed in Sinophone literature with American self-deprecating black humour. The plot consists of two parts: a depiction of an isolated astronaut journey to the moon, and the interconnected stories of five ordinary people on different terms, each of them echoing with the astronaut states of mind while in space.

The play will be performed by the Drum Tower West Theatre on an ingeniously designed stage. In the centre is a revolving playground, on whose background the astronaut can be seen passing by, sometimes riding a bicycle, other times pushing the moon. The intriguing fairy-tale stage invites the audience into the starry sky to have a glimpse at the characters’ lives from an omniscient perspective.

I Am a Moon is a play full of vitality, glowing with the playwright’s keen observation of life, and the director’s examination of the subtleties in human relationships, and leaves the audience with a more compassionate and poetic view of life.

By Becca Cheung
A graduate from the School of Drama of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Directing, and a theatre practitioner engaged in physical theatre and dramaturgy

This article is excerpted and translated from Chinese