June 29th, THURSDAY, 8:30 pm
Theatre Carte Blanche
WONG TING PONG, TSUI KA LOK. 24H RESTRICTED AREA
Pantomime Duo
Performers: WONG TING PONG (MICHAEL) and TSUI KA LOK (GAFFER), Hong Kong
24h Restricted Area is a pantomime act with elements of mime, pantomime and masks. At the core of its story lies the problem of sky-high prices of real estate in Hong Kong, which makes it impossible for people to afford a place of their own. Hong Kong also lacks in public areas with limited activities for people who live in rented flats regulated by government measures and landlords. Moreover, the government of Hong Kong sells public property to big companies, which has caused the extinction of small shops and replaced them with big supermarket chains.
This situation made us come up with the performance 24h Restricted Area. It describes the problem of living space and our feelings about this topic. We hope that our play will raise awareness about the problems of living space. Also, this is one of the few pantomime acts with a political theme.
In 2004 Michael joined Fringe Mime And Movement Laboratory (Mime Lab), the oldest pantomime group in Hong Kong, and started acting. He has performed in the following plays: Flower Fading and Born (2013), The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree (2012) , Where Am I Going (2010), Why Not 1.0 (2010), Why Not (2009), etc. Michael has toured international festivals with Mime Lab, included Seoul Fringe, Taipei Fringe, Macau City Fringe, Shenzhen Fringe. He has worked with Korean directors Jong-Yeon Yoon and Kim Daegun. Michael has been learning Butoh since 2012, he has attended workshops and a master class from Katsura Kan and Yumiko Yoshioka who are the Butoh Masters of Japan.
He has studied clowning from the Spanish clown master Andreu Segura, and mime under English mime and clown master Peta Lily. Since Decembre 2016 Michael has been teaching mime to prisoners of the Tai Lam Centre for Women – a maximum security prison for women in Hong Kong. He is the Creative Director of Super Clowns, the Hong Kong clown group, and he has directed one of the most popular clown plays in Hong Kong, Clownborigines in March 2016. Influenced by the silent art - Mime, Michael uses ’imitation’ and ’observation’ (the essentials of Mime) to come up with creative designs himself. He has won several awards at festivals. He has a degree in floral design and he continues to study color, balance, lines and shapes trying to incorporate them in his stage act.
Gaffer is a mime and juggler. He joined Fringe Mime and Movement Labaratory (Mime Lab) in 2003. He is an avid theatre lover and passionate about exploring life, people and time through the art of mime. From 2009 to 2012 he completed several workshops in Korea which focused on exploration through physical theatre. He has also taken a course in Clown (2013) with Peta Lily, a master of mime and clowning. He performed in many plays, including Where Am I Going (2010), Demolition (2011), The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree (2012), etc. He directed Where Am I Going (2010), Flower Fading and Born (2013) and Unknown (2014). He participated in many festivals: Seoul, Taipei, Macau, etc. He has organized the following plays with the Hong Kong Philharmonic: Baroque for Family, Jazz for Kids, Chaplin for Kids (2016). He has performed in Korea, China and France with the Hong Kong Drama/Theatre, The Great Cultural and Global Association of China, Choi Hung Drama Association and the French group Ordinary Theatre (Theatre de l’ ordinaire). He established the juggling group ’Fruit Punch’ in 2013 with his friend. They do mime and juggling acts, and frequently appear in commercials. He starred in the film Meow (2017), set to debut this summer.
