THEATRE REVIEW

MARCH 2025 | Volume 249

 

This 75-minute one-person show, whose playwright is Anonymous, offers audiences a variety of tastes of Hong Kong. We get to hear about and sample some of its street food, learn about its geography and its history, past and present. We also get a sour taste of its contemporary politics—China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s nascent democracy—and a poignant taste of the resistance to it.

Under Richard Wolfe’s direction, a slightly manic and mannered Derek Chan chats directly to the audience in English and Cantonese. Dressed in a tee shirt and toque, Chan introduces himself as Jackie, an émigré from Hong Kong, who wants to share his homeland and some of its treats with us.

With the help of Andie Lloyd’s clever video design, he gives us quick lessons on Hong Kong’s 3-island geography, population density, and transportation system before segueing into food. Every audience member has been given a box before entering.In it we find a sweet pineapple bun—which, Jackie explains, has little to do with pineapple—and red bean dessert soup.We also get curry fish balls, with one of which he plays ping pong with an audience member.

It quickly becomes clear that everything in Hong Kong, including its street food, has become politicized. So we hear about a 2016 protest against the overregulation of unlicensed vendors. And from there we dive into the pro-democracy protests and the government’s violent response to them with the help of the triads.

Whenever the show appears to return to the subject of food, politics rears its head. Stage right is a table with a great pot of congee and bowls for each audience member to get a taste after the show. Jackie points out that the Cantonese word for congee sounds like the English joke, which leads him to remark that the law is a joke as he continues his narrative about the government’s siege of his university campus.

As he tells of his protests along with his student friend Alex, and the government’s escalating atrocities, the narrative becomes increasingly emotional. Chan powerfully enacts a beating Jackie received from police, and explains his decision to emigrate. But Alex refused to leave, vowing to stay and fight until the end. He was subsequently arrested and,since 2021, remains in prison.

“Glory be to thee, Hong Kong,” Jackie sings, as he reiterates: “I refuse to forget.”

 

 

 

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