Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Presents MARRIAGE

One of Japan's most celebrated playwrights, Hashida Sugako, has moved countless audiences with such popular works as Oshin, Wataru Seken wa oni Bakari and Akai Giwaku. Her play Marriage, originally a 1982 television drama and adapted for the stage the following year, traces the path of women's self-determination and how they overcome fate. Marriage, which has appeared on the Chinese-language stage many times and touched theatregoers' hearts far and wide, concerns five women living under one roof, connected by familial bonds and mutual promises in facing adversity. Yet everything changes when love enters into the picture. How do they free themselves from their shackles, pursuing happiness without any regret? The play's 2015 HKRep premiere production received 11 nominations at the Hong Kong Drama Awards, winning Best Actress (Tragedy/Drama), Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design and Top Ten Popular Productions. Translated by Yu Daiqin and directed by Fong Chun Kit, this production features Mercy Wong, Man Shui Hing, Kiki Cheung, ManMan Kwok, Ip Ka Yan, Chris Sun, Leung Tin Chak, Yuen Wai Sun, Chow Chi Fai and Eddy Au Yeung. Marriage runs from March 7th to 10th at the Yuen Long Theatre Auditorium. Tickets are available now from URBTIX outlets.

Marriage is about the Hanada family that consists of a mother(play by Man Shui Hing) and four daughters whose lives are simple yet peaceful and content. Eldest daughter Akiko (played by Mercy Wong) immediately entered the workforce after completing her schooling so to reduce the burden on their mother. Second daughter Fuyuko (played by Kiki Cheung) remains at home, taking care of cooking and all the family needs. They all pin their hopes on the younger daughters Natsuko (played by ManMan Kwok) and Haruko (played by Ip Ka Yan) to enter university and to better their lives. One day, a drunken Akiko divulges a secret that she has long kept secret she is discriminated at her company because she is unmarried. From then on, the topic of marriage stirs up a huge storm in the quiet family. The five women choose their own paths: some are hesitant with love while others forge ahead without fear. Every woman's pursuit of happiness involves complex layers of matters of the heart.

To Director Fong Chun Kit, Marriage depicts the many ways women strive to attain happiness, each making her own choices: Marriage is the symbol of blissful joy for every character in the play, not because they can get married. Along the way, they forge a path to live life fully for themselves, to be true to their hearts rather than living for others. What bliss it is to be able to live for oneself.

After the Hong Kong production run, Marriage will tour in mainland China, including such stops as:

March 15-16 at Opera Hall, Guangzhou Opera House

March 22-23 at Theatre Hall, Zhuhai Huafa & CPAA Grand Theatre

March 29-30 at Grand Hall, Foshan Grand Theatre

Fong Chun Kit graduated from the Drama School of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2010 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) Degree, majoring in Directing. Fong's graduate piece Taming of the Shrew won him the HKAPA's Outstanding Director 2009/2010 award. His other work, Three Men and a Lady, which he wrote, directed and performed, was nominated for Best Script at the 3rd Hong Kong Theatre Libre Awards in 2011. In 2016, Fong was nominated in the Best Director (Tragedy/Drama) category at the 25th Hong Kong Drama Awards for his work in The Marriage. In 2017 and 2018, at the Hong Kong Drama Awards, Fong won Best Director (Comedy/Satire) for The Truth from Liar and Sing Out.

Fong's directorial output includes Principle(2018), Auspicious Day, The Marriage, The Last Supper (premiere and three revivals, plus touring to such cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hanzhou, Guangzhou, Kaohsiung and Singapore) and Secrets of the 81/2 Floor for the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre; My Very Short Marriage by Music Nation Group; Hong Kong Trilogy for the Hong Kong Arts Festival; Le dieu du carnage (premiere and revival, plus Singapore tour) for Dionysus Contemporary Theatre; Red Sky for Chung Ying Theatre; Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love and Avenue Q for Windmill Grass Theatre; The Truth from Liar, Sins, Forget Me Not, Monsters and Monsters (re-run) for the Artocrite Theater; The Goat for We Draman (also as translator); Three Men and a Lady for Three Men Play (also as playwright and actor); With Love, William Shakespeare for Theatre Noir (also as playwright, touring Hong Kong, China and Taiwan with more than 100 performances); Lysistrata and Taming of the Shrew for the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Twelfth Night for tobe THEATRE (premiere and revival).

Currently a freelance theatre artist, Fong is a co-founder of tobe THEATRE.

Tickets available at URBTIX.

Please visit www.hkrep.com for more information.

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