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Interview: Kearen Pang on 'Laugh Me to the Moon'

Ahead of her third one-actor play, Kearen Pang tells Edmund Lee why she’s far from going it alone.

Petite and soft-spoken, Kearen Pang has touched the hearts of more young women than most guys would ever dare to boast. One of the most relatable figures in a new generation of local theatre artists – born in the 1970s, and whose works often apply a contemporary touch to ponder the experience of growing up in Hong Kong – Pang has crafted a brand of her own since her solo debut in 2005 and is now widely acknowledged for the female sensibility displayed in her one-actor plays.

At once eloquent and bittersweet, her first work, 29+1, depicts women’s loneliness as they approach 30. The life-affirming story about a cosmetic company manager proves to be a prolonged success for Pang, who plans to stage yet another re-run of the show in the coming April (“As long as I still look like I’m 29+1!”, she jokes). On a similar note, Pang’s second work, Goodbye But Goodbye, delves into another source of the writer-director’s apprehension – the finite nature of human relationships – by following a once-successful book author’s search for a long-lost childhood friend. The play won Pang the Best Actress title at 2008’s Hong Kong Drama Awards.

Laugh Me to the Moon is Pang’s third one-actor play, and it tells of a disillusioned primary school teacher who tries to reconnect with her childhood dreams by entering a stand-up comedy contest. When we arrive at Pang’s rehearsal space – which houses both hers and Trinity Theatre’s offices – to talk about her new work, she is alone in a dimly-lit living room, only accompanied by Disa, her white golden retriever. It is perhaps a fitting image for a performer known for her solitary persona on stage. Disa keeps on licking my palm.

Will you involve Disa in your work anytime soon?

I’ve always wanted to! [Laughs] But with animals, it’s sometimes a bit tricky…

Where did you get the idea for your new play?

From myself – all my productions stem from my own state of being at the moment. For the first runs of my two previous works, 29+1 and Goodbye But Goodbye, I ran the shows with only the little subsidy I got – and a lot of guts. People asked me who my sponsors were, and I replied, “There’s none. There’s only myself.” And they all thought I was too reckless. I had to cover my budget with the box office alone, and there’s no star in my shows to sell tickets. I didn’t think about my market on day one – because I didn’t know how to think about it. It might be an idiotic decision, but I wanted to do it. Some people thought it’s silly to even attempt, which made me wonder whether it’s ‘silly’ to pursue [my] dreams.

What kind of dreams?

Doing dramas [for a living] is a kind of dream for many young people. But for us, who’re already working in the field, what can still drive us forward? And what more can we pursue? Dreams are idealistic – be it a nice career, a happy family – but not always realistic. This reminds me of the moon: it’s very far away from us, but we manage to see it because of its large size. The same for dreams: are we dreaming big enough? We’re all living under the moon; it’s just that some of us have forgotten it’s there.

Why did you choose to do one-actor plays?

The initial idea was to do my own plays after working for years as a full-time [theatre company actor]; but I didn’t really have the confidence to invite people to collaborate with me. I mean, if my guest director tells me my writing is rubbish [switches to a child’s voice] – what do I do? I therefore tried to involve as few people as possible, and ended up writing, directing and performing my own works. After that, I’ve realised that this unique format has actually allowed me to connect directly with my audience on an emotional level. After they come to my shows, they don’t feel that they’ve watched a play; it’s more like they’ve made a new friend. They feel close [to me].

Have you got any feedback from your audience members?

There’s a lot! It’s quite magical. When I’m doing a play for a theatre company, I’m only thinking about whether it’s a good performance, and whether the audience likes it. But when I do my own plays, it’s more than that. Many from my audience actively share their personal stories with me. They think that we’re in a heart-to-heart relationship. Instead of praising my work, they say ‘Thank you’ to me. Perhaps I’ve let them realise that they’re not alone in their situations. For example, after watching 29+1, someone [from my audience] resumed contact with her divorced husband; someone quit her job to go study abroad; someone travelled to Paris to find her dreams…  And many went on to find their long-lost friends after watching Goodbye But Goodbye, too – I’m aware of many of these cases.

You mention that you worried for your productions in the early days, because they had no stars. I guess you’re more relaxed these days?

Not… really. I’m known by many, but… it still depends on a lot of things. Laugh Me to the Moon is a play that doesn’t [necessarily] sell tickets, because I’m not addressing [a hot topic like] relationships or turning thirty. Also, my shows are not for entertainment – even though they may turn out to be quite funny at times. [The general public] will still prefer [Cantopop star] Sammi Cheng’s concert to my show, because there is Sammi Cheng. Then again, this is something that I’m striving to achieve: I want to see how far I can go without partnering with a pop star.

Laugh Me to the Moon runs from Fri 18 to Mon 21 at APA’s Lyric Theatre. Performed in Cantonese.