City Stage: Hong Kong Playwriting in English

Back to the Wall

Back to the Wall Teresa Norton and Nury Vittachi Amid a slew of topical new works in Chinese and English, Teresa Norton and Nury Vittachi managed to produce the quintessential Hong Kong Handover play in the 1995 piece, Back to the Wall. The play was based on a true-life experience by Norton, which she recounted in her South China Morning Post column. She recalls seeing a six- or seven-year-old child lying dead on a street in North Point, and discusses her reactions and those of other passers-by, as well as those of the girl's mother. Originally conceived as a personal and comic view of expatriate Hong Kon g life, the solo performance evolve d in the rehearsal process into a much mor e serious treatment of the theme of identity and the way in which our lives inexorably intersect with others outside our immediate circle of acquaintance. A ten-scene, loosely connected series of interior monologues, the connection between the three females of different ag e (all represented on stage by Norton herself) only becoming clear in the final part, the play does not appear on first scrutiny to be very dramatic. It is an important and insightful piec e of writing, however, because it approaches the themes of transition and future direction from, again, a marginalized perspective. Brenda and Fiona, the adult characters, are both expatriate women, while Kitty is a fourteen-year-old Eurasia n girl. Kitty's thoughts are first presented to us through pre-recorded voice-over, while the pregnant Fiona's thoughts are mediated to us by her one-way conversation with her unborn child. Brenda, the feisty but troubled American give s us the basic narrativ e i n her whisky-fuelle d recollection s o f a n eventful 30 June 1997 evening. All three characters are at the crossroads of their lives, but what makes the play riveting is the way in which their lives become intertwined, even though with consummate dramati c irony w e come to understand, mor e than they do , just how closel y intertwined they are. The play deals with death, birth and rebirth and in the ambivalence of its characters, particularly the forty-seven-year-old Brenda , towards Hong Kong and life in general, it epitomizes the feeling that, for all its uncertainties and imperfections, Hong Kong remains home for many expatriates as a matter of deliberate choice, in spite of intercultural communication problems and the return of sovereignty to the Mainland. The ambivalence, even polysemy, in the title's pun, hints at a multiplicity of choice — a different wa y of looking at Hong Kong's tryst with history from that of the Western media. Norton and Vittachi's deliberate choice of three voices, one wistful for a father she hardly knows, one rough-edged with cynicism, and one desperately uncertain about her predicament with a n illegitimat e Eurasia n bab y abou t t o b e born t o her, i s fortuitous . Non e o f th e monologues is capable of sustaining a whole play, but together, their collective destinies and the way their lives are inexorably linked makes the play both moving and compelling. Back to the Wall is one of a number of Hong Kong creative works that address the intricate and emotionally charge d issue s o f the Handover obliquely , an d in our view, more subtl y an d memorably than a direct treatment of the subject-matter could ever have achieved. Back_to the Wall 9 5 The play runs approximately one hour and there is no interval. The action takes place in Hong Kong on the evening of 30 June 1997. I. Kitt y dedicates her song II. Brend a gets stuck in the traffi c III. Fion a remembers taking a walk and finding a girl IV. Kitt y does her "home" work V Brend a grades death VI. Fiona fights the current VII. Brend a goes back for her handbag VIII. Kitt y searches the evening sky IX. Fiona feels the pull of the changing tide X. Brend a decides whether to go or stay SCENE I 30 June 1997 Early evening (Kitty, a 14-15-year-old Eurasian schoolgirl is discovered, staring at her reflection in a hand mirror. She is on the roof of her apartment building. She is a masked character and all her dialogue/thoughts are presented as a voice-over on audio...