Stray cats, chunks of stone and traces of near-forgotten Hong Kong dialects inspire some of the themes in Spotlight — Tai Kwun’s just-announced performance art season. Kicking off on Sept 16 with a solo performance by Hong Kong’s leading danseuse Mui Cheuk-yin, the program runs until Oct 17.

Anna Lo and Rick Lau perform an excerpt from the cabaret show, LauZone, at the media launch of Tai Kwun Performance Art season, Spotlight. Both performers also co-created the show, directed by Yuri Ng. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The season finale will be marked by an ode to granite, which figures prominently in the architecture of Tai Kwun, which used to be an integrated police station, magistracy and prison complex, prior to its revitalization into a cultural facility. Members of the creative team of this rock-themed piece, called The Inner Etudes, shared how they went about recreating the everyday experiences of prison inmates at the media launch of Spotlight. The audience will navigate their ways through the jailhouse corridors, led by an audio guide feeding into their headphones.

Lei Pui-weng, associate director and playwright of The Inner Etudes, talked about being struck by the different textures on the rock surfaces as well as the imprints left on them by time. Tai Kwun’s boundary walls were raised in phases and hence bear the tell-tale signs from its history.

Dance personality Mui Cheuk-yin announces her newest work, Diary VII: The Story Of… with lighting designer Lee Chi-wai. The piece is based on Mui’s relationship with stray cats. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The Inner Etudes is one of six newly commissioned pieces launched by Tai Kwun this season. Not counting the free dance workshops and performances for people who sign up online, to be conducted by Unlock Dancing Plaza on October 15 and 16.

“These seven outstanding multi-disciplinary programs showcase the creative imagination and forward-looking vision of local artists as well as their ability to delve into the subject,” says Eddy Zee, head of performing arts at Tai Kwun. The new works speak to the unusual times in which they were created, he adds, while “enabling the audience to relate themselves to every performance.”

Mui Cheuk-yin’s Diary VII: The Story Of… is the latest chapter in a series the dancer began in 1986. Each edition is informed by the artist’s concerns of the moment. The new one is dedicated to Hong Kong’s stray cats and Mui’s layered relationship with some of them. While Mui is known for her ability to invest the most mundane, everyday objects with dignity in her performances, the lighting design of this show, created by Lee Chi-wai, might be worth watching out for. If the trailer video of Spotlight is anything to go by, the dramatic interplay of light and shade will give a lift to Mui’s heart-tugging performance.

Tai Kwun’s head of performing arts, Eddy Zee, says the seven shows presented as part of Spotlight demonstrate “the creative imagination and forward-looking vision of the local artistes.” (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Director Yuri Ng returns with his cabaret team of composer-performer Anna Lo and writer-performer Rick Lau, who have been regaling Hong Kong audiences with their robust singing and lively stage presence since the first edition of Tai Kwun’s performance art season in 2018. LauZone (a colloquial Cantonese term to describe non-Cantonese people) will turn the spotlight on the dialects that are, or used to be, spoken in different localities of Hong Kong and the distinctions between them.

Also on the cards is Minute Moonshine, an immersive show in which five London-based Hong Kong creatives share their take on Hong Kong through dance, visual images and installations. The experience has been described as a cross between experimental theater and alternate reality game. The trailer suggests the show involves playing with the idea of the multiplicity of perspectives.

Music composer Daniel Lo, media artist Yu Wing-yan and novelist Wong Yi collaborated to create the cross-genre production, The Happy Family. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Music composer Daniel Lo, who adapted Xi Xi’s short stories into a chamber opera, Women Like Us, brings another literary work to life on stage. This time he has adapted Wong Yi’s novel, The Happy Family, into a hybrid performance form that combines a seven-player instrumental ensemble with narration and video projection.

International collaborations were part and parcel of Tai Kwun’s performance art programs from the very outset. This continues to be the case, regardless of COVID-19. Thai dancer, Pichet Klunchun, a leading exponent of the country’s Khon — a tradition which combines, dance, drama, music, poetry and shadow play — will lead four Hong Kong dancers in a lecture performance, titled No.60: Back to Basic. The idea, according to the press release, is to explore how a traditional performance form might travel across cultures and time periods, and be made to work in present-day Hong Kong.