FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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All in the family

All in the family

The recently ended Hong Kong Arts Festival brought a new American play trilogy to Asia

Whenever I plan my visit to New York – and these days that’s less often than Europe – one of the first websites I check is that of the Public Theatre. With year-round programming that’s diverse in both style and content, this non-profit company has been entertaining and engaging audiences for many decades, although it is often upstaged by the glamour of Broadway.
So I was delighted to discover that the recently concluded 45th Hong King Arts Festival (HKAF) had in its programme a new play trilogy that premiered last year at the Public Theatre. Furthermore, it was possible to watch all three plays making up “The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family”, in one day – a marathon viewing that had proved successful both in Big Apple and the Perth International Arts Festival. Each play lasted an hour and 45 minutes and there was a decent amount of time for refreshment and dinner breaks in-between, so it didn’t really feel like a boot camp.

All in the family “Hungry”, part 1 in the trilogy “The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family”, is set after Super Tuesday. Photos/Joan Marcus

Tony-Award winning playwright Richard Nelson set the first play “Hungry” on the Friday evening after March’s Super Tuesday, when Hilary Clinton gained a significant lead for the Democrat Party’s nomination and Donald Trump was just emerging. The audience was introduced to the Gabriels, a middle-class white family living in Rhinebeck, a small town in upstate New York. Mary’s husband, well-known writer Thomas, had passed away a few months earlier and she was still mourning. His mother Patricia, who now lives in a care home, was paying a visit after Thomas’s ashes had been released into the Hudson river. Also joining the dinner were Thomas’s brother George and his wife Hannah, Thomas’s sister Joyce as well as his first wife Karin. While they were preparing dinner –the play was staged in real time and the ingredients and cooking were also real so kudos to the set designers –the audience started to learn about their personal problems, which had little to do with politics. George and Hannah, for instance, were trying to find money for their son’s college tuition. 
The second play “What Did You Expect?” was set in September before the first debate between Clinton and Trump, and added more personal problems to the mix. Patricia, for example, was suffering financially as a result of re-mortgaging her house and could not afford to pay for her care home. Karin, meanwhile, was trying to identify which of Thomas’s belongings they can sell as memorabilia to help. George, who earned little from giving piano lesson, was disconcerted that they were now planning to sell the piano. 
The last play, “Women of a Certain Age”, was set early evening on election day before all the votes had been counted. While there was a sense of worry in the air about the election result and how it might affect them, it was the personal issues that were again at the forefront. Patricia, for example, has had a stroke and would have to sell the house eventually.

All in the family

    “Women of a Certain Age” is set as America awaits the election results. Photos/Joan Marcus

 

Playwright Nelson staged these three plays by himself and I had difficulty at first in hearing his actors’ voices. The microphones were hanging above the stage but didn’t seem to be on. Later, though, I realised it was probably the director’s intention to make these plays as realistic as possible and thus had asked his actors to use their normal voices, not projected ones. After all, the narrative was about family issues and the audience was peeking into their actions, or lack thereof, and eavesdropping on their conversations. That reminded me of the naturalism approach favoured in the early 20th century, and was thus a refreshing experience, particularly these days when audiences still think that theatre is larger than life, rather than a reflection of it.
“The Gabriels” was a kind reminder that no matter how much we say we care about our country and its government and politics, what matters most to us is our daily life and the troubles at hand, with our families and those around us coming a close second. Thanks to HKAF’s unique vision, we in Asia had a chance to watch this dramatic gem even before the West End. 
It should also be noted here that, in another deft curation, HKAF commissioned local playwright Loong Man-hong to create another domestic drama trilogy charting one family’s lives in three key moments: before the change of sovereignty from the UK to China, after the Sars epidemic, and after the Umbrella movement. 
SOON TO COME
- The highlights of the 46th HKAF, next February and March, will soon be announced and tickets will be available online by October. Visit www.HK.ArtsFestival.org. 

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