Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), the 34th Macao Arts Festival will present 19 selected programmes under the theme ‘Wondrous Encounters’ from 3 May to 7 June, covering theatre, Chinese opera, dance, circus, music and visual arts. The Festival will feature a number of programmes that reinterpret classics with innovative approaches, and will thereby take the audience on a journey of wondrous encounters.
Opening performance reshapes a classic through dance; closing Sino-Portuguese Concert highlights Sino-Western cultural integration
The Macao Arts Festival this year will kick off with the dance theatre production Jungle Book reimagined by legendary British dancer and choreographer Akram Khan, which is an insightful adaptation of the classic The Jungle Book by the Literature Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling. Featuring dancers who portray animality with movements and ingenious animation, the production relates the human needs to connect with others and conveys the importance of universal harmony. In the closing programme Sino-Portuguese Concert, Portuguese pop rock band Capitão Fausto will share the limelight with David Huang who is an expert in melding Western and Asian flavours, jointly creating wonderful moments of Sino-Portuguese cultural exchange with their distinctive music and continuing Macao’s centuries-old tradition of fostering Sino-Western cultural contact and integration.
New version of a classic ballet brings surprises; innovative play scrutinises human feelings
The light-hearted circus theatre Duck Pond, inspired by Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, will be presented by Circa Contemporary Circus from Brisbane, Australia, with their stunning techniques. In the contemporary ballet Sleeping Beauty, Spanish National Dance Award winner Marcos Morau is teaming up with the Lyon Opera Ballet to take the audience into the sleeping princess’ otherworldly space. The Three Brothers presented by Portuguese art troupe My Own Name depicts family relationships and invites the audience to probe into human feelings by presenting the frictions and struggles among brothers on the stage. Frankenstein/Creatures is an adaptation presented by Space for Acting in collaboration with Japan-based Theatre Moments, which will offer a time-traversing vision of the past, present and future at the Dom Pedro V Theatre.
Songs about life reveal women’s feelings; Macbettu rendered by an all-male cast
In The Fury of My Thoughts, a production directed by Marie Brassard with inspiration from the brief life of writer Nelly Arcan, six actors and one dancer will perform seven songs about life that convey the thoughts that weigh on women’s minds and soothe tormented souls. Macbettu, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy by Italian director Alessandro Serra, boldly recreates the classic with an all-male cast, rendering breathtaking scenes with martial physicality.
Traditional Chinese operas to once again explore innovation; diva to entertain music fans with classic hits
The Zhen Hua Sing Cantonese Opera Association will present the new Cantonese opera Under the Pagoda Tree, in which renowned performer Chu Chan Wa and a number of other local actors will perform the immortal love story of utmost sincerity and soul-stirring beauty with a combination of modern stage technologies, exploring the ongoing reinvention of cultural heritage and stage arts. Experimental Kunqu opera The Chairs, an adaptation from the play of the same name created by the great playwright Eugène Ionesco in 1952, interprets the classic Western absurdist play with the minimalist technique of ‘one table and two chairs’ of Chinese traditional opera and presents a unique type of aesthetics that blends elements of Chinese and Western art. Taking the theme of ‘self-combed women’, the environmental dance theatre production She Said will stage a dialogue that transcends time and space at the Old Ladies’ House of the Macao Holy House of Mercy, relating stories of women’s self-awakening by combining dance and Cantonese opera songs and integrating Chinese and Western musical elements. In the concert Frances Yip and the Macao Chinese Orchestra, the ‘super diva’ will team up with the Macao Chinese Orchestra to entertain music fans with her most beloved songs.
Local theatrical performances to stimulate thought; Patuá theatre highlights diversity
Anamnesis no.: XXXX by Dirks Theatre Arts Association, an adaptation of Equus — an acclaimed play by British playwright Peter Shaffer, reconstructs the narrative time and space to broaden the appreciation and perception of the public. Through a combination of theatre, dance, circus stilts, and Quanzhou marionette puppetry, Impression of Iec Long by The Funny Old Tree Theatre Ensemble will recreate the scene of the gunpowder mixing room explosion that happened in the Former Iec Long Firecracker Factory. Patuá theatre, a national intangible cultural heritage item of Macao, is presented every year at the Macao Arts Festival. This year, the play A Star is Arriving highlights the coexistence of diverse cultures.
The arts in the community as a companion to growth;
The Little Book by Baj Theatre will open the door to the wonderful world for the little ones through a textless book. Created by the local plastic arts and multimedia artist Bernardo Amorim, the multimedia theatre production By Your Side – Forever here with you will warm the hearts of the little ones with video imagery and puppetry. Performing Arts Gala will once again be staged at the Iao Hon Market Park for three consecutive nights, presenting a wide array of performances by art troupes from Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia, Pingtung, Indonesia and Macao to promote art in the community.
Exhibition highlights dialogue between China and the West
The exhibition Focus: Artistic Integration between China and the West in the 18th–19th Centuries held will display a selection of over 300 pieces/sets of artworks from the Guangdong Museum, Macao Museum of Art, and Hong Kong Museum of Art, unveiling the visual dialogue and integration between China and the West brought about by local and foreign artists in the Pearl River Delta during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Tickets for the 34th Macao Arts Festival are on sale simultaneously through the Macau Ticketing Network outlets, hotlines and website from 10 a.m. on 23 March (Saturday). On the first day of ticket sales, ticket purchases for each show are limited to a maximum of 10 tickets per performance per person; the limit of maximum 4 tickets per person applies for Frances Yip and Macao Chinese Orchestra and special ticketing arrangements are applicable to some shows. An early bird discount of 30%, subject to certain criteria, is available from 23 to 31 March, and a 20% discount will be offered from 1 April onwards. Members of the public purchasing their tickets with a BOC Macau Credit Card or BOC Macau Card will receive a 30% discount on tickets for the opening programme Jungle Book reimagined and the closing programme Sino-Portuguese Concert, as well as a 20% discount on tickets for other shows. A 20% discount will be offered for holders of a MasterCard, Visa or UnionPay card from ICBC Macau, BNU, Luso International Banking Ltd., BCM Bank, Tai Fung Bank or OCBC Macau. A 50% discount will be offered to holders of a Macao Senior Citizen Card or Disability Assessment Registration Card and to holders of a full-time student card (issued in or outside Macao) who purchase tickets for two different shows; each cardholder can only use one discounted ticket per performance. For every ticket purchase over MOP500 (net price after discounts), purchasers will receive one MGM dinning voucher and one ticket for the ‘Wondrous Encounters’ lucky draw. Air Macau customers can enjoy a 20% discount on ticket purchases at the Macau Ticketing Network outlets by presenting their respective boarding pass (flight code NX) within 7 days upon their arrival in Macao.
The 34th Macao Arts Festival counts with the support from the Macao Government Tourism Office of the Macao SAR Government, TDM – Teledifusão de Macao, Air Macau, and MGM. The Festival’s website: www.icm.gov.mo/fam; email address: fam@icm.gov.mo. For enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6699 during office hours. 24-hour ticketing hotlines: 2855 5555 (Macao), 2380 5083 (Hong Kong) and 139 2691 1111 (Mainland China). Ticketing website: www.macauticket.com.
The presentation of the 34th Macao Arts Festival programmes was held at 12 p.m. on 13 March at the Vista of MGM Cotai and was broadcast live online for a number of media and art troupe representatives from the Greater Bay Area, in the presence of the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leong Wai Man; the Deputy Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Cheng Wai Tong; the Director of the Programmes and Production Division of TDM, Ltd., Lok Kong; the Senior Vice President of Arts & Culture of MGM, Cristina Kuok; the Vice Presidents of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Cheong Lai San and Cheang Kai Meng; and representatives of the participating art groups.