Face

February, 2002 By Veronica Needa

Spring Tour 2002 & 2005

Directed & Designed by Shu-Wing Tang
Performed by Veronica Needa

A 2005 spring tour of London venues in two language versions, English with some Cantonese, and Cantonese with some English.

"My face overwhelms my identity"

What's in a face?

Across the world, this is a contemporary phenomenon experienced by many born into mixed-race parentage. Who am I? What am I? Where are my real roots?

Weaving slides, music and storytelling, this warm and funny solo show digs beneath the surface to uncover one woman’s Eurasian ancestry and identity.

FACE was commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Centre for their FESTIVAL NOW in 1998. It was first developed in English with director Chris Harris in Bristol, and then reworked in Cantonese with director Shu-wing Tang, premiering in Hong Kong with great success. Since 1998 it has toured to schools, universities and arts centres, in Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, & Singapore. The English version was presented in the UK by Yellow Earth Theatre as its ACE-funded tour in the Spring of 2002.

FACE has now been published by the International Association of Theatre Critics (HK) in THE DRAMA AFTER: HK Drama 1998 in both English and Chinese, and will shortly be published by the Hong Kong University Press in an anthology of Hong Kong Plays.

Quotes from the press in Hong Kong on FACE:

"A terrific tale told simply in a series of moving vignettes"
South China Morning Post

"A production of universal appeal, in essence it is about anyone trying to get to the heart of themselves and finally finding their place."
Sunday Morning Post, Hong Kong

"... the play was a thought provoking personal exploration of being Eurasian... the staging was excellent..."
Simon Wu, Assessor for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

"Riveting performance"
Asiaweek

"Face was a potent and wonderful production....the play was an effective blending of life and art..."
Professor Gilbert Fong, Assessor for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

"...the production inspired us to face the issue of identity positively..."
Sing Tao Daily News, Hong Kong

"... her inspirational use of the mythical dragon, whose body was a composition of features of different animals, was an effective image that brought out the issue of mixed cultures..."
Apple Daily, Hong Kong

"... moving without being overtly sentimental... really made me laugh"
Ming Pao Newspaper, Hong Kong

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