Shakespeare’s Macbeth – Shouson Theatre Hong Kong

The HK Arts Centre Shouson Theatre - A Hong Kong shrine to all things theatrical. Since opening, the host of all dramatic genres – pantomime, operetta, variety shows, and tonight Shakespeare. The English Bard. Renowned around the English-speaking world for great works such Othello, King Lear, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, and this evening perhaps his most depressing work - Macbeth. A play about the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends, with Scottish royalty murdering each other pretty much to enable the hated English to successfully invade a Scotland in a power vacuum.

This is the irony of those norse Celtmen. 'One together' on other continents, celebrating Burns and Wallace, Malt Whisky and Haggis, kilt and bag-pipe, in solidarity as ‘Scots’ in foreign lands. All angst forgotten about highlands and lowlands, Campbells versus MacDougall, Chukters and Sassenachs, Rangers versus Celtic. But at home the reverse, in a land variously described as a barren rock, hewn from glaciers falling into the sea after the most past ice ages; a country of lochs, lakes, and lands filled with wild herd animals, heather, and oats. With Scotland’s one true contribution to modern world cuisine remaining that revered cereal - oats

The Nav, freshly cleansed, ales sitting warmly in his male womb, celebrating a day of winning on the water, made his way to the theatre to meet the mad mob of miscreants that is the HK theatre community. A kaleidoscope of teachers, musicians, teachers, technicians, teachers, and journos. Fun-loving and ‘fabulous’, these religious followers of all things intellectually fashionable. A colourful community in HK, mostly seen after dark, a few hours in a theatre, cheek kissing and gossip complete, then off to the pub for a 7 hour review together until the early wee hours; Gordon and Morgan and Guinness their warming companions, before sidling off home to avoid that most damaging of earthly aspects – sunlight

Into the theatre, a storm of expectation, people to their stalls, the house tannoy ‘blinging and blaring’ in earnest, urging all to take their seats as the performance was about to start. House lights down, stage lights up, and then we were off ! A graveyard stage, witches and necromancy, royalty and thanes, soldiers and swords, blood and treachery, murder and loss. Oh what an evening of uplifting light entertainment in this Asia’s world city. Intermission, a loud raucus crowd in the house bar, comparing auditions and calendars, upcoming shows, who’s cast and who’s not, Producers and Directors, Techies and Stage Managers, and then it was back to more beastliness from The Bard.

Interestingly the 2nd act offered much the same fare - a graveyard stage, witches and necromancy, royalty and thanes, soldiers and swords, blood and treachery, murder and loss. And then it was over, lights up, the audience filing out quickly, more cheek kissing and calendar checking, and then it was off with urgency to that shrine of all thespians – The Pub

The Producers birthday. Booze in excess, leeriness and lechery, deafening decibels, birthday songs, cascading glasses of lit licquer, deep discussions yelled from 3 inches about costumes and lighting, stage and sound, scripts and plot. Then like Cinderella, watches watched, clocks clocked, these thespos skipped off to the next bar, then the next, and the next, and finally the next - a whirlwind of wandering. Until finally, as light began to appear in the east, it was off home, shambling to taxis or first buses, back to the dark recesses of apartments and flats, homes and houses, behind closed blinds and eye blinkers, electricity avoided.

These Thespians of the night allowed the netherworld of rest to nix them, waiting until the sun again disappeared, enabling them to again rise and reclaim the night, wandering the theatres and auditoriums, the bars and clubs, the streets and alleyways of Hong Kong – because all the world is indeed a stage

Until the next Theatrical tragedy

This is The Nav. Curtains drawn and house closed