Freespace x HKRep　Panasonic proudly sponsors The Impossible Trial – a musical

(As published in the house programme for the 2019 preview performance)

The Great Pretender is a project involving ten years of gestation, three years of development, one year of rehearsals, and three hours of performance.

After the curtain falls tonight, The Great Pretender will continue to evolve until its official opening in 2020 and, perhaps, also for the decade after that.

The Great Pretender is an unprecedented experiment in Hong Kong in terms of its subject matter, creation and preparation length – which composer Leon Ko has described as a “luxury”. Having spent years on the work, the team follows the tradition of mainstream theatre in the UK and US of staging previews before the official premiere in order to collect audience feedback.

American and British mainstream musicals often take years to develop. These shows may have a lifespan that continues decades after the official launch. “I would like to explore whether it is possible for a Hong Kong musical to follow this tradition. This is a new challenge for us and the local theatre,” said lyricist Chris Shum.

A Much-Needed Luxury

Chris Shum realised the challenge of putting on a musical with Qing dynasty background, courtroom scenes and a detective plot. “It’s not a common theme for this genre. But that’s what made it interesting. The dialogues in the scenes contain a lot of information about the case, including the time, place and people involved. It wasn’t easy to write the lyrics.”

According to composer Leon Ko, “The difficulty lies in the proportion of stage dialogues to songs. It was only after I had written some music for the show and felt comfortable with it that I agreed to take on the project.”

The musical was also a challenge for the playwright and director. After the first draft, the script went through over 13 rounds of revision. Cheung Fei Fan, playwright, said jokingly, “The revisions were perpetual, especially for the courtroom scenes. There couldn’t be any loopholes in the plot.”

Having the time and space to explore seemed like a luxury for the creative team, but it was, in fact, essential.

Leon Ko and Chris Shum are a golden duo in the Hong Kong musical sphere. One of their works, The Passage Beyond, has won several awards. But as Ko explained, “Many of our previous works were done in a rush. I once wrote 20 songs in half a year. I managed to finish them, but didn’t have time to go back and revise them. One time the songs weren’t even completed the day before rehearsal. Now that we have time to complete all the songs before readings, we can focus not just on the melodies, but on the roles and functions of each song, the ideas, as well as how the lyrics help to heighten the drama.”

Music and Script Working as One

According to director Fong Chun Kit, the soul of a musical is the music. “Music has to come first, its rhythm leads the entire show. Even if the script is ready during rehearsals, without music, actors will lose the rhythm.” Yet, due to the lack of resources in Hong Kong, the schedules for musical productions are often so tight that the songs aren’t completed before rehearsals.

“It’s a luxury if you have a year,” said Leon Ko. “I usually ask for a year to prepare and conceive the music. Then I start writing intensively in the following six months. When West Kowloon commissioned this project it was given the time it needed. They agreed that time is the most important thing and that a preview was necessary. This time, all the songs have been composed before the reading session. There’s time to make revisions – minor ones or more substantial ones.”

Over the past three years, the creative team have made some painful decisions when refining the work. For example, Ko and Shum had written a trio which was revised into a different form. “We were both happy with it, but we realised that it didn’t fit, so we let go of it,” said Chris Shum. Leon Ko added with a wry smile, “You can’t be unwilling to let go, even though it is your own hard work. The music should serve the musical, not your own ego.”

Music and script need to work as one, and improvements require time. “The script has improved a lot since day one. It wouldn’t have gone through so many rounds of revision if there hadn’t been time for the entire team to be part of the process,” said Shum.

Given the nature of musicals, the storyline can’t be too complicated. However, in The Great Pretender, there is a lot of information and the plot needs to be flawless. As Shum said, “It’s easy to leave loopholes when you’re writing detective stories. We managed to avoid them because we were given enough time.”

Through the revisions, the characters became more vivid and complete. “As the plot progresses, the characters learn and grow from their experiences. The more the audience knows about the characters, the more engaged they are,” said playwright Cheung Fei Fan. During readings, the actors asked about the characters’ experiences and interactions that weren’t detailed in the script. “Why does this character feel like that? What leads to this sudden change of emotion?” This was important in shaping the characters’ personalities.

Musicals Emphasise Rhythm and Accuracy

The production period of musicals in Hong Kong usually spans a year. Yet, the creative team of The Great Pretender was given three years to compose the music and lyrics, and two years to write the script.

“Although I could verbally explain the story to the actors,” said director Fong Chun Kit, “I’d need to listen to the songs to get the feel of the music, rhythm, tempo and melody, in order to be sure where to place the actors. Leon’s songs are meticulous and detailed. Sometimes there is a common melody running through some of the songs to represent the journey of a character. To direct well, I have to know these details.” The biggest challenge of presenting a musical is that actors need to be familiar with the songs, dances, moves, and their stage positions. In this project, there was enough time for rehearsals.

“The number of bars in a song will determine the rhythm of that particular scene,” explained Fong Chun Kit. The actors’ movements have to follow the music. That’s why stage directions are needed. It is only through failures and rehearsals that the actors can get them right. Say, for example, there are ten people in a scene, they all have to coordinate their movements, because it’d be distracting even if just one of them misses a step. In plays there’s room for improvisation, but musicals have to be precise. A musical involves acting, dancing and singing. One needs to be well-practiced in order not to make mistakes.”

Feedback from the Audience Provides Motivation for Perfection

“As the director,” said Fong Chun Kit, “I sometimes sit at the back of the stalls to watch the audience’s reaction. Things that seemed natural to me may not be received the same way by the audience. Their feedback means a great deal. I find new motivation every time I join the post-performance discussions. Musicals are a collaborative effort involving lots of back and forth, and it’s only through discussion that a work can improve. By inspiring each other, we hope to refine the songs and script, and shape the best version of the work we can.”

Text by Hilary Wong

English translation by Flora Chung

Co-presented and Co-produced by: