Frankenstein/Creatures

Space for Acting

11, 12/5
Saturday, Sunday
15:00, 20:00
Dom Pedro V Theatre

Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, without interval
Performed in Cantonese and partially Japanese, with arts accessibility services (accessible captions in Chinese and English, audio description in Cantonese and theatrical interpretation)

Please switch off all sound and light-emitting devices. Unauthorised photography or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Thank you for cooperating.

Artistic Team

Direction and Adaptation: Daisuke Sagawa
Producers: Cheong Tei Kei and Lam Wai Kei
Assistant Director: Clare Nakahara
Cast: Chobitsuki Amemiya, Ernesto de Sousa, Wilson Chan, Vong Weng Chon, Tong Ka Hei, Leong Ka Ian, Iu Cheok Kit and Minnie Chang
Lighting Design: Atsuko Uno
Sound Design: Tetsuro Koshikawa
Costume Design: Yu Arishima
Audio Description: Rainbow Chan
Theatrical Interpretation: Iong Ka Tat and Mak Ut Chan@Show Sign & Art
Stage Manager: Tang Chong Pong
Assistant Stage Manager: Wong Chak Hoi
Assistant Administrative Manager: Sylvia Lam
Cantonese Script Translation: Indi Chan
English Surtitles: Nanako Nakai
Japanese Interpretation: Miki Lei
Acknowledgments: The Japan Foundation, Beijing

Programme Notes

Victor Frankenstein enjoyed a happy childhood, until the day his mother died while giving birth to his brother. Since then, dealing with grief, he buried himself in experimental studies, obsessed by the principle of life. One day, the scientist builds a creature that turns out monstrously ugly. Unable to accept what he has done, he flees from his creation, only to find that the monster killed his brother and is now asking Victor to create him a companion…

This production is an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a novel exploring the scientific development, differences and prejudices taking place in the 19^th Century. Frankenstein/Creatures, however, stimulates the audience’s imagination uncovering the hidden “monsters” in modern society using props and physical performance.

Director’s Notes

Frankenstein/Creatures was premiered in October 2020 while Japan was hit by COVID-19 outbreaks and the Tokyo Olympics had to be postponed. Theatrical performances were also subject to certain rules, restricting venues to allow only half of their capacity and forcing performers to wear masks during the shows. As physical contact was definitely impossible at that time, COVID built a wall between people. Different countries had diverse perceptions and adopted different responses, creating much tension. Not long ago, the unknown nature of the disease triggered our fear, making us reject every “unknown idea”. At the present moment, humanity is developing artificial intelligence (AI), a technological concept which, like COVID, is not yet fully understood. So, now it is time for us to consider how to tackle the effects of this unknown technology. Twenty years from now, what will be the connection between the COVID virus, AI and human beings? If we try to picture the situation, will we feel fear? Or will we envision a utopia? If you are afraid, it may be because you don’t believe in yourself or in humanity’s potential. Looking back in history, such perceptions are understandable but, inevitably, they are also regrettable.

This production is a story between “humans” and “a creature created by human”, the “human” are played by Macao actors and the “monster” by a Japanese actor who speaks Cantonese. This performance will end in a slightly different way from the original, so it is even more filled with anticipation.

By Daisuke Sagawa
(Translated from the original Japanese)

Biographical Notes

Daisuke Sagawa, Direction and Adaptation

Sagawa is the director of the Japan-based Theatre Moments, and chief of International Division, Japan Directors Association. He has served as the chief director of the theatrical team at the Sengawa Theatre in Chofu since April 2019 and has studied under theatrical directors from France and Russia. He went on to found Theatre Moments with the aim of “creating world standard theatre in Japan” and has been active overseas in recent years, having received invitations from China, Malaysia and other regions.

Cheong Tei Kei, Producer

A secondary school theatre instructor, Cheong founded Space for Acting in Macao in 2012 and is dedicated to theatrical productions, accessible theatre and radio plays. In 2011 and 2015, he was invited to curate the exhibition for Macao at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. His directing works in recent years include The School & I, Our Town, and Present.

Lam Wai Kei, Producer

Lam is a local theatre producer, passionate about trying different approaches throughout her 10 years of experience in stage arts. She mainly serves as a manager, producer and actress in performances in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Her works have been presented in over 200 shows across 17 cities.

Clare Nakahara, Assistant Director

Nakahara is the director of the Japan-based Theatre Moments. She joined the famous Japanese theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue before studying under theatre directors from France and Russia. She has also learned dance with Kei Takei and Japanese dance with Murasaki Fujima, and founded Theatre Moments with Daisuke Sagawa in 2004, where she also serves as a producer and actress.

Chobitsuki Amemiya, Actor

Chobitsuki is an actor at Theatre Moments. Since graduating from university, besides theatre he has been studying taiko drumming and creating folk dance, having performed in the United States and Russia. He currently performs as a comedian and taiko drummer and has been a live-streamer in recent years. Among his works are The Happy Prince and Le Petit Prince.

Ernesto de Sousa, Actor

Sousa was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize at the 13^th Golden Sugarcane Film Festival in Taiwan. He is a founding member and creative director of the Spark Theatre Group and is currently an artist under Milkyway Hairun Artists Limited. Sousa graduated in Acting from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Among his performances are Ashes, The Goldfinger, and the television dramas We are the Littles and Sparks.

Wilson Chan, Actor

Chan graduated in the basic acting course at the School of Theatre of the Macao Conservatory and is a member of the Dream Theater Association and the Macao Youth Repertory Theatre. He has performed in a number of productions including The Victory Shipyard, Under the Roofs of Shanghai, Phaedra 2.0 – Desires and Lies, and The Legend of Lyra.

Vong Weng Chon, Actor

Vong holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Education from The University of Warwick in the UK. He has been a contracted novelist with Mirror Fiction in Taiwan and is currently serving as a playwright, director and actor at The Funny Old Tree Theatre Ensemble. In recent years he has written and directed Court Theatre: Land Act and the musical Filipino in Macao, among others. Vong has won the Outstanding Script Award in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Theatre Exchange Programme with Merely a Story of My Own.

Tong Ka Hei, Actor

A stage actor in Macao, Tong started to engage in theatrical arts in 2018. He has directed Brighton Beach Memoirs and performed in In a Grove, The Monument, Love 2.0, Choice 5.0, Equus, and The Bus Driver.

Leong Ka Ian, Actress

Leong is a freelancer engaged in theatre, film, television and modelling. She is currently a member of the Ocean Walker choir under the Macau Soul Music Association and a student in the advanced acting course at the School of Theatre of the Macao Conservatory. Her theatre performances include Normal, Scenes from a Marriage, and Steel Magnolias.

Iu Cheok Kit, Actor

Iu is a founding member of Frost Ice Snow Creative Experimental Theatre and currently serves as a manager-in-residence and actor. He has worked both on and behind the stage for different theatre groups, including The Sprout, Sky Theatre Creative, Tornado Creative Theatre, Drama Society UMSU, Own Theatre, Space for Acting, Compass Association of Creative Theatre, and Macau Experimental Theatre.

Minnie Chang, Actress

Chang is a trainee of the Hiu Kok Drama Association’s “Born for Theatre” Production and Actor Development Programme. Her theatre performances in recent years include The Story of Tu Youyou and Scientists, The Theory of Everything, _intoTheWonderLand_, Move Over Mrs Markham, and Granny Pirate.

Atsuko Uno, Lighting Design

Uno is a freelance lighting gaffer and has served as a lighting designer for different theatre companies. Among her productions are KOSMOS, Marriage of Buddha, A Forgotten Promise with Bhumi, The Indelible Wound, as well as Narayama bushikō, Run, Melos!, and Macbeth for Theatre Moments.

Tetsuro Koshikawa, Sound Design

Koshikawa graduated from the Tokyo Gakugei University and has served as a sound designer for Dreamily in a Dream, Farewell America!, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Light series created by Kei Takei from 1969 to 2011, as well as Narayama bushikō, Run, Melos!, and Macbeth for Theatre Moments.

Yu Arishima, Costume Design

Arishima is a member of the theatre troupe Futoukai in Japan. She studied Costume Design at Mode Gakuen in Tokyo and has obtained a Bronze Licence for Formal Specialist from the Japan Formal Style Association, and Level 1 and Level 3 Pattern Making Certificates from the Association for the Promotion of Fashion Education in Japan. She has been designing costumes for Theatre Moments’ productions since 2009.

Disclaimer
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government provides liaison and technical support to the project only. Any views/opinions expressed by the project team are those of the project only and do not reflect the views of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.