Hamlet
Tibet Autonomous Region Drama Troupe, China
The Tibet Autonomous Region Drama Troupe is going to debut in HKISF! The Troupe’s Hamlet is based on the original 1990 version by renowned Chinese theatre director Lin Zhaohua. It was adapted and directed by Pu Cunxin for the 2021 graduation production by the Tibetan undergraduate class at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and has since become an official repertoire for the Tibet Autonomous Region Drama Troupe, touring domestically and internationally multiple times while receiving awards. For this Hong Kong premiere, 22 young actors from the Troupe will perform entirely in Tibetan. Tibetans are naturally gifted in song and dance, and with the distinctive presence of Tibetan performers, they bring scenes like Ophelia’s melodious singing before her drowning, exuberant and dazzling dances, and swift-as-lightning sword duels to life in a profoundly vivid and captivating way.
The translation for the production was done by the late scholar Li Jianming and Tibetan linguist Nima Dunzhu. It embodies the unique charm of conveying Shakespeare’s words through contemporary Chinese and Tibetan languages.
Performed in Tibetan with surtitles in Chinese and English.
The running time of the performance is approximately 2 hours 15 minutes with an intermission.
Macbeth Solo
Paul Goodwin, The Shakespeare Edit, United Kingdom
MACBETH solo is a distilled original language version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for one actor, brought to Hong Kong by award winning theatre company The Shakespeare Edit.
Performed by Artistic Director Paul Goodwin, and created in collaboration with Ukrainian composer Dmytro Saratskyi, this 60-minute monodrama is a thrilling psychological portrait of Macbeth’s descent into madness, bringing Shakespeare’s great poetic tragedy fully alive for contemporary audiences.
“Every voice we hear and every figure who “appears” is refracted through Macbeth’s mind. His world shrinks until no one else matters.” – Aspects of History (London)
Previously seen in London, Riga, York, Verona, Mumbai, Prague and at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC where the production won the award for Best International Show.
Free Seating.
Performed in English with surtitles in Chinese.
The running time of the performance is approximately 1 hour without intermission.
Ophelia: An Object Study
Directed by Ewa Kaczmarek, Poland
Here is a new biography of Ophelia — full of hypotheses, written with tenderness, speculative yet plausible, placing at the forefront what in the renowned Hamlet remained only in the background.
Ophelia. An Object Study offers a bold and fresh reinterpretation of Hamlet, shifting the focus of the drama onto a character long marginalized. The performance begins where the classic tragedy usually ends: on a stage filled with remnants—costumes, fabrics, water, and props—from which a new story emerges. Through object theatre and metatheatrical dialogue, the creators draw attention to what is silent and often overlooked, crafting a world of meaning brought to life through matter. Water, garments, and simple gestures become carriers of memory, violence, love, and power, revealing Ophelia as a strong, fully realized figure. The production balances poetic abstraction with the stark clarity of experience, merging subtlety with a critical reflection on history and dramatic hierarchies. Awarded the Prospero’s Book for its intellectual depth and formal sophistication, Ophelia. An Object Study invites the audience to linger in thought long after the curtain falls.
General admission.
Performed in Polish with surtitles in Chinese and English.
The running time of the performance is approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes without intermission.
Othello
Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, Hong Kong
Final episode of Tang Shu-wing’s direction of Shakespeare’s Four Great Tragedies – Othello, featuring an exceptionally powerful and promising cast, Leung Tin-chak, Mandy Wong, Lai Yuk-ching and Rachel Leung. The phenomenal cast, each of them plays multiple roles, performing Shakespeare’s most brutal tale of love and deception in Cantonese.
This production marks the culmination of director Tang Shu-wing’s exploration of Shakespeare’s four major tragedies, brought to life with a minimalist yet intense approach, interpreted through Cantonese to highlight the devastating lies and jealousy at the heart of the tragedy.
Performed in Cantonese with surtitles in Chinese and English.
The running time of the performance is approximately 2 hours 30 minutes with intermission.
Shakespeare Dance Theatre
1. Planting Shakespeare (China)
If emotions could photosynthesise, how might the body grow in Shakespeare’s soil? Planting Shakespeare treats text as “fertile soil,” from Hamlet’s melancholy to Richard III’s ambition, these affects are transmuted into vegetal strategies of rooting and phototropism. By evolving the dancer into a “Plant-Body,” this ecological experiment dismantles anthropocentrism. Guided by mathematical sketches of emotion, the work captures trajectories of growth and decay, offering a radical re-reading of classics through multi-species perception and somatic critique.
2. We are (not) Romeo and Juliet (Hong Kong)
Free Seating.
The running time of the performance is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with an intermission.