August 2024, Kowloon. The last night of the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Fong, 65, is about to start her second job. She has prepared the family meal and is waiting for her son, Wing, to join her. Wing doesn't show up: he is still at work repairing watches in a cheap mall. Karen is rich, beautiful, and lonely, and she's just broken her watch.

This is their story, told in a Hong Kong that can no longer tell the difference between the living and the dead, the rich and the poor, memories and hopes. 

'Fate first, luck second, fengshui third.' This ancient Chinese saying suggests that however the cards have been stacked in one's life, effective feng shui gives individuals the opportunity to alter their life course. 

One person may seek good luck through feng shui and fortune-telling, but how could anyone tell the fortune of a whole city? Drawing on his search for answers from divination sticks and palm readings during his 2023 Hong Kong residency, French playwright Nicolas Kerszenbaum connects the fates of the individual and the city and summons the supernatural as guide in this magical realist play.

Post-performance Talk 

A post-performance talk will be held after the performance on May 10. 

The running time of the performance is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission. 

In Cantonese, with English subtitles.

House Programme 

Director and Playwright: Nicolas Kerszenbaum  

Performers: Holmes Cheung, Esther So, Franchesca Wong

Musical Creation: Guillaume Léglise

Lighting Designer: Pierre Daubigny 

Sound Designer: Kosta Asmanis

Set Designer: Claire Legal, Carlo Biggioggero 

Assistant Director: Becca Cheung 

Nicolas Kerszenbaum

Artistic Director and Playwright

A director and playwright with a degree in performing arts and economics, Nicolas Kerszenbaum founded the theatre group franchement, tu in 2005, with which he has created over twenty works.  

He recently collaborated with the Thai company B-Floor Theatre on A Thai Mirror (2022) and Persephone (2022). His other works include A Beautiful Stranger (2019) for La Poudrerie – le Théâtre des Habitants, Two Ghost Cities (2018) in La Habana, and Swann s'inclina poliment (Artcena Winner, 2017), which was adapted from the novel Un amour de Swann by Marcel Proust. He was also the writer of A New Hero (2014), which has been performed over 150 times.  

In 2023, he adapted Conrad's Heart of Darkness in the form of a night walk in a forest and was awarded the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs for his work Kairos (2023), a four-episode theatre series.  

He has also worked with the Tréteaux de France – Centre Dramatqiue National on the creation of L'enfance à l'oeuvre (Festival Avignon, 2017), Oblomov (2020), and Ping Pong, which has been performed more than 300 times. He is a regular theatre teacher for La Sorbonne University and several French high schools.

Holmes Cheung

Performer

Holmes Cheung is a cross-media artist and performer with multiple identities, including actor, dramaturg, dancer, choreographer, video and graphic designer, and curator. 

Cheung's key strengths are spotting the relationship between performers and spectators, scene and space creation, visual communication and use of symbols, text and devising. He has participated in various art festivals, performances and artist residencies in France, Hungary, South Korea, Taiwan, Beijing and Macau.

Recent works include Cheung Lee Hung, Relatively LIVE, Live, Makye Ame (Hong Kong and Taiwan version). Recent performances include Good Fortune, Beyond This Time, Burmese Day, We are Spectacle(s), Drifting, The World Once Flat (Hong Kong and South Korea version), Lightening. 

Esther So (Sogun)

Performer

Esther So (Sogun) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) Degree in Drama (Acting) from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2018. During her years of study, she performed in Perth, Salzburg, and Seoul.

As a freelance actress, Sogun explores various mediums, including TV, stage, and other forms of performance.  Her notable works include the premiere of French May's Good Fortune in Paris, the ViuTV dramas Leap Day and 940920, as well as the performative installation Remain Calm (Air) by Japanese artist Nile Koetting at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Recently, she has also performed her first stand-up show, collaborated on a podcast, and worked as an assistant director.

Sogun has extensive experience in educational theatre, having performed in hundreds of school tour performances. She is also experienced in teaching acting and musical singing in schools.

Franchesca Wong

Performer

Franchesca Wong is a freelance actress based in Hong Kong. She was an actor-in-residence at We Draman Group from 2020 to 2021. Raised in both Canada and Hong Kong, Wong graduated from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business in 2012. She then returned to Hong Kong, where she graduated with a degree in acting from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 2019.

During her studies, she received multiple scholarships and the HKAPA's Outstanding Actor Award. She has had multiple overseas learning experiences including at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (UK), Mozarteum University Salzburg (Austria), Odin Week Festival (Denmark), and Grotowski Workshop (Taiwan). She has performed in multiple stage, film, TV and commercial productions. In 2022, she was nominated for the Hong Kong Small Theatre Best Actress Award for her solo role in Duncan Macmillan's Every Brilliant Thing. Apart from acting, she has experience in emceeing, drama teaching and corporate role-playing.