City Hall, Theatre Friday 30 to Sunday 1

Theatre du Pif’s The Will to Build is a verbatim theatre piece that addresses the issue of space – from the physical and public to the personal and psychological – in Hong Kong. First performed in 2008 and now on its second run, the work started out as more than 40 interviews, which were collated and moulded into a text that could be performed. The year-long process took a small troupe of interviewers and writers, and the much-needed help of literary advisor Liam Hurley. “The play covers so many voices of the city,” says actor Sean Curran. “From property tycoons to cage dwellers, planners to preservation activists, construction workers to architects, and politicians to feng shui masters.”

The concept is to explore how different Hongkongers feel about space. Both Curran and Bonni Chan, director and writer of this year’s The Will to Build, were interested to find that space meant very different things to different people. “[People think] they’re looking for space,” says Chan, “but actually, they’re looking for time.” Time for themselves, and time to create a private space for themselves. Through the voices of the interviewees, the play makes reference to the past, present and future. For example, one individual recalls the devastating fire in the squatter village in Shek Kip Mei in 1953, while another talks about the current property market.

Curran tells us that The Will to Build has “kept the thrust of the 2008 performance and made it richer”. With luck, it could create a new forum for its audience to rethink their relation with space – both without and within.

Heidi Yeung

Performed in English and Cantonese with English and Chinese surtitles. Tickets: 2734 9009; www.urbtix.hk.