Behind the door of a small, tucked away studio above Tib Street in the Northern Quarter, a group of performers can be heard laughing. Their latest production is designed to make people laugh but is also a moving and uncomfortable watch at times - it is intended to make you think long after the curtains fall.
The Bouffon-style play is by actor and writer Isabella Leung and she, like many of the cast and crew, are from Hong Kong. Some, including stage manager, Ronly Lam, and actor, Chun-Him Wu, fled to make new lives in Manchester after China implemented a controversial national security law on the city in July 2020.
Giving Ronly, Chun-Him and other Hong Kongers who have made a new home in the UK - and specifically Manchester - a platform to tell their and Hong Kong's stories, Isabella's show, 'A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong', was a finalist for the 2021 Women's Prize for Playwrighting and will debut in the city as part of the Push Festival at HOME next week.
The word Bouffon comes from the Latin verb buffare, which means to fill ones cheeks with air. In more recent times, specifically in modern French theatre, the term was re-coined to describe a specific style of performance art focusing on mockery. (It also explains where the English the word buffoon comes from.)
Isabella learnt more about the practice while studying in France under the tutelage of Philippe Gaulier - a French master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre. Isabella explains the performance style as the "perfect way to explore the absurdity of our struggle as a marginalised group of artists".
Isabella, who also studied in Manchester, said her play started to take form while attending Gaulier's school - around the time of the first wave of protests in Hong Kong in 2019. "After I graduated from the University of Manchester I went back and forth between Hong Kong and the UK and then I trained in France, which is what prompted me to write the play," she tells me as the cast run through a scene in the background.
"Philippe was a master in clowning and comedy and that's how I learned about the genre of Bouffon. That was back in 2019, around the time when the protests were happening in Hong Kong. I was writing small Bouffon scenes then and it eventually evolved into a play.
"Thankfully I got the commission from the theatre for the Push festival - and I realised the importance of telling this story here while I am here. Being in London, I was aware that a lot of Hong Kongers had moved to Manchester because it is cheaper here and there is already a strong community. I went to university here and the Chinese food is great and so is the community in Chinatown."
'It is important to give people who have fled a voice'
Isabella, who was born and raised in Hong Kong and came to study in the UK when she was 12, spent her adolescence abroad but has a strong understanding of the political situation in Hong Kong and how it impacting those who have left. "When I started to talk to people here in Manchester I realised that it is important to give a voice to people who were forced to flee Hong Kong because of the conflict - I mean they are essentially political refugees.
"I also hope this play can give them a sense of community again - a chance to present their story. It’s a play for an audience from Hong Kong to watch and relate to, but also for those who are not familiar with Hong Kong’s story to learn something."
Though Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, it was a British territory until it was handed back to China in 1997. The handover agreement gave the city gave special freedoms covering press, speech and assembly protected under the "one country, two systems" model of governance.
The controversial national security law in July 2020, which gave Beijing sweeping new powers over the semi-autonomous city, was passed despite public opposition and brought in laws such as the criminalisation of 'subversion' and 'collusion' with foreign forces, including speaking with western journalists. The announcement came after protests in 2019 against another bill, which would have allowed suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to the mainland.
Following the national security law passing, the UK introduced a new immigration route for Hong Kongers with British National Overseas (BNO) status in January 2021 and since, some 144,500 people have left Hong Kong and moved to the UK, according to the latest government statistics.
"In our play, there’s a lot of references to colonial history and I touch on a lot of dangerous political territory, but I'm also playing around with a lot of satirical elements and using humour as a weapon to say things about politicians, without directly saying it. We’re mocking it by playing a version of them," says Isabella.
"In terms of timeline I’ve picked out a couple of important historical events in Hong Kong, beginning with the 1997 handover and then it goes on to the 2019 protests, but I use a small family's perspective to peek inside that world. One of the events I reference is the death of a protestor who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, he was the first person who died for the movement and when he died he was wearing a yellow raincoat.
"The loss of this first fighter for freedom was one of the events that indirectly happens in the play. I have a child trying to catch a yellowbird and a child falls off the balcony and this is a metaphor for this tragedy."
'I do feel some guilt - but it was a blessing we were able to leave'
For Ronly Lam, the play's stage manager, who moved to the UK in July 2021, it's an honour to work on the production but says he feels conflicted about leaving friends behind. "I’m so excited to be part of this play because one of our goals as Hong Kongers is to speak continuously of Hong Kong, to tell other people what really happened," he explains.
"My first consideration when I moved here was that the cost of living is cheaper than London, but in terms of moving from Hong Kong it’s a real challenge for me as we’ve brought our families here. I’ve brought my retired mother and father but I have to set up a new life for them and myself. It’s a huge burden, but after one and half years I’ve survived.
"When I watch news about Hong Kong now it still seems related to me, but it’s not because we’re here now. I do feel some guilt. In 2019 I was in the protests, but it’s a blessing that we were able to leave. However, we are reluctant to say we are happy here because they are still suffering."
Chun-Him Wu, who moved over in December 2020, is also pleased to be back working in the creative industries after a tricky start when he first got to the UK. "I still sometimes can’t believe I’ve left Hong Kong. I had my career there as an actor and teacher and then in ten days I had to make a massive choice to leave all that," he tells me.
"I made that decision because there was no more freedom of speech. Mr Tong Ying-kit [a renowned activist] was the first to go to jail because of the national security law that was brought in and when I saw this I said to my mother, ‘we need a plan B’.
"It’s a complicated feeling for me. I’ve been here two years and I feel for my friends and relatives still in Hong Kong. We have already had three friends who have gone to jail. When I think about them I cry."
Above all else, Chun-Him, Isabella, Ronly and the whole team behind the play hope it will ensure Hong Kong will remain in people's thoughts. As Chun-Him says: "Through this play I want to tell the UK people that it's a complicated feeling for us.
"We have freedom of speech, freedom to create here, were are on free soil. And I want to thank the UK people and government, we share the same values on freedom and democracy, but please, don’t forget us."
A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong is being performed as part of Papergang Theatre, a theatre company with the aim of improving the representation of British East, South East Asian (BESEA) culture across the dramatic arts. It is showing at HOME from Thursday, 16 February to Saturday, February 18.
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