Showtime: best of fire and ice on display in Macau
Mixture of acclaimed performers and up-and-coming artists lined up to perform at the 28th Macao Arts Festival
It’s not only the weather that is heating up. Performers from around the world are converging on Macau for the 28th Macao Arts Festival, from April 28 to May 31. The schedule adopts the Heterotopia theme to explore the diverse possibilities of space. It is packed with 25 shows and exhibitions, and an outreach programme of talks, master classes, workshops, meet-the-artists sessions, school performances, art critiques and movie screenings comprising 100 activities.
Acclaimed performers and up-and-coming artists are featured. After opening the festival with Play and Play: An Evening of Movement and Music, a reinterpretation of Schubert and Ravel’s classics, the famed North American modern dance company, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane, is scheduled to present another hypnotising performance of A Letter to My Nephew.
Many plays that have taken the world by storm are in the line-up. The Nether, written by Los Angeles-based dramatist Jennifer Haley, portrays dark human desires and the virtual world. Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker from Japan offers an explosive mish-mash of musicals, extreme reality TV shows and everything in between.
Emerging Portuguese choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira presents the ballet Hu(r)mano, while Aneckxander, from Belgium, seeks to amaze you with a mixture of acrobatics and body language.
Performances that commemorate local cultures feature prominently. The Shaanxi People’s Art Theatre celebrates the 110th anniversary of Chinese theatre with the classic Westland Feuds, while the Comuna de Pedra Arts and Cultural Association presents Songs of Migrants, revealing memories of local migrants and important parts of local history.
The closing show features The Seagull, Russian author Anton Chekhov’s 1895 masterpiece, performed by the Reykjavik City Theatre, with the plot relocated to Iceland.
Off stage, the outreach programme allows audience members to get up close and personal with featured artists. Pay attention while you are in town, as Japanese director Toco Nikaido and her troupe of Miss Revolutionary Idols Berserker will appear on the streets of Macau.
