As a young man, Rick Lau enjoyed spying on his neighbours. When he lived in a Ngau Tau Kok public housing estate, he would sit by the window and peer into the apartments opposite. “I wondered what people were doing,” says Lau, a Hong Kong-raised Australian. “And that’s how my interest in people’s lives started.”

Years later, following his critically acclaimed cabaret series Rick at the Fringe and sold-out runs at previous City Festivals, Lau has returned with another one-man cabaret show, called Men in Love.

In the show Lau plays a peeping Tom, gazing into 12 of his neighbours’ apartments, eventually playing out their colourful love stories. He presents the stories with the help of famous romantic tunes from the likes of Stevie Wonder and John Lennon. One number describes a man bumping into his ex-girlfriend from 17 years ago, while another portrays a man’s anger after being dumped by Post-it note.

After a decade of building a reputation for taking on various voices in large-scale stage shows, Lau decided to get away from it for a while and “see what other stories are out there that people can relate to.” With his persuasive voice and razor-sharp wit, he has forged a strong reputation and following of his own in Hong Kong’s theatre scene. Much of that success can be attributed to the powerful allure of intimacy. Lau can bring frantic days to a restorative end with his songs in softly-lit bars or clubs, accompanied only by a lone pianist. “The big attraction with cabaret is the intimate venue,” he says. “People can see my whole face and any little movement.”

Sometimes, however, that sense of closeness can be a little too much for comfort. Lau says he had a low point during one Edinburgh Festival show when he performed to just three people in the audience who were “really quiet”. It was a struggle to pick himself up for the performance, he says. “But after doing that, I can do anything now.”

These days in Hong Kong, Lau reckons there’s a solid, though still very niche, market for cabaret. “I’ve been doing English cabaret shows, but I think slowly there might be a market to start developing Cantonese ones,” he notes, before adding: “I feel like I am meant to be here now.”

Teracy Wang

Tickets: hkticketing.com, 3128 8288.