After seeing these group of actors perform Titus Andronicus a few years back and have never seen being performed in English I thought I should come again and watch the opening of the Cantonese version of Macbeth.

I’m a big fan of this play and watching this in Cantonese was going to be a challenge because of the context and translation. So lucky I’ve already read the play, studied it in secondary school and watched it in English a few years back!

I found the play in Cantonese very challenging. Most of the dialogue was in old Cantonese, philosophical style and would require lots of knowledge but it was easy to follow (if you know the play well… and also read the side screens explaining each part of the play). Many people left in between the play – probably totally lost in translation!! I was quite surprised that men were playing the three witches, but that was mostly common back in the 1600’s for men to play the women parts. Heheheh. 

Macbeth in Cantonese could easily pass as a TV period drama or a film as most of the cast wore old style Chinese clothing. 

It was wonderful to see how much dialogue they had and I think it must of been hard for them to memorise it all. 

So well done to the Tang Shu-Wing Theatre group! Hope to see another Shakespeare play from them soon – with lots of complex dialogue >.<".

There are still two more shows, so if you want to see it… book it now.