‘Only through time time is conquered’, writes T. S. Eliot famously in “Burnt Norton”, the first poem of the Four Quartets.
Eliot’s long poem takes us through London’s alleyways and evocative rose–gardens, passing through summer trees and the figured leaf, asking uncertain and uneasy questions. Where are we, as human dancers, in all this history of grandeur and squalor? How do we, as imperfect human beings, figure in time? But the figuring of time itself in this long poem belongs to the history of another place, another time: to speak of conquering time resonates directly with Biblical sites of redemption, medieval knights in post–Conquest Europe, and longstanding heroic quest–tales for the eternal “still point.” How far or near does this legacy reach? Are we looking to conquer time, after all, in Hong Kong? Are there other experiences of time closer to the everyday heart and beat of Hong Kong?
Only Through Time is a play prompted by the line ‘Only through time time is conquered’ in T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. This original play, inspired by Eliot’s poem, tells a new story of time in Hong Kong. It is a dramatic work about coming of age twice-over in Hong Kong, once at 21 and again at 42. This new piece is a time-bending performance incorporating theatre, art, movement and dance produced by the Black Sheep Family and the Creative Writing Studio.
Show 1: 19 Sep 2014
Show 2: 20 Sep 2014
Show 3: 21 Sep 2014
About the Black Sheep Family and the Creative Writing Studio:
The Black Sheep Family and the Creative Writing Studio at HKU support and develop creative writing, artistic craft, and kinship of students and alumni of the MFA in Creative Writing Programme, the undergraduate Creative Writing programmes, the HKU family, and Hong Kong community more widely.