Only Through Time

From the leaflet of Only Through Time   Minding the Gap one-act play at HKU Black Box Theatre

T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets us through London’s alleyways and evocative rose-gardens, passing through summer trees and the figured leaf, asking uncertain and uneasy questions.  Where are we, as human dancers, in all this history of grandeur and squalor?  How do we, as imperfect human beings, figure in time? But the figuring of time itself in this long poem belongs to the history of another place, another time; to speak of conquering time resonates with Biblical sites of redemption, medieval knights in Post-Conquest Europe, and longstanding heroic quest-tales for the eternal “still-point.” How far or near does this legacy reach? Are we looking to conquer time, after all, in Hong Kong? Are there other experiences of time closer to the heart and beat of Hong Kong?

Only Through Time   Minding the Gap is prompted by the line “Only through time time is conquered”.  This original play, inspired by Eliot’s poems, tells a new story of time in Hong Kong.  It is a dramatic work about coming of age twice-over in Hong Kong, once at 21 and again at 42.  This new piece is a time-bending performance incorporating theatre, art, movement and  dance produced by Thirtyspokes.

Inside the Black Box
where my butt met the pebble
candles flickered among audience of silence
shadows murmured and wandered on stage
(meditating mode …..)
a child giggled
his sweet voice brought me back to the real world.