It’s a football musical. And it’s set to be pretty good too, considering it’s a production by HK Repertory Theatre with artistic director Anthony Wong at the helm. Without a doubt, the story of how a group of Hong Kong footballers came to represent China in the 1936 Berlin Olympics is one worthy of theatrical adaptation, not to mention the timeliness of the whole thing. And Hong Kong owes this effort to one man by the name of Vincent Heywood, a football lover who stumbled upon the story in the hills of Sai Kung.

14 years ago, Heywood heard the unlikely story from an elderly Chinese man in a group hiking expedition. “Honestly, I found it difficult to believe at the time,” says Heywood. “After all, the population of China was 500 million in 1936, so why should there be a need to turn to a British Colony for the footballers?”

In the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics Heywood hunted down the story, turning to the web and the archives of the Hong Kong library. And it turned out to be true. That’s when he cold-called Anthony Chan to suggest turning this amazing story into a play, and one more surprise for Heywood was in order when Chan agreed almost immediately after a visit to the open football field, the field of dreams, in Tai Hang.

From this Chan took the story and turned it into a musical with award winning composer Leon Ko to make this football musical happen.“It was a challenge to present football on stage,” explains Chan. “So I thought it would be better to use a stylized format.” In addition, HK Rep called in the Southern China Athletic Association to train the 10 principal actors to pick up some football moves, particularly the header (the Cantonese name for the play) for which the Chinese team was particularly famous. The choreography of the musical is a creative endeavour that incorporates the sporting elements into the song and dance. It’s sure to include some headers; the perfect theatre cure if you’re already suffering from Olympics withdrawal. Bourree Lam

Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, Aug 30-Sept 8