Killer Thriller

EVENT DESCRIPTION

In celebration of its 15th anniversary, The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection (AFTEC) is proud to present Killer Thriller, a brand new original From Page to Stage® production written and directed by renowned Hong Kong theatre and education heavyweight and AFTEC’s Artistic Director, Dr Vicki Ooi.

In what promises to be an exciting, hilarious and thoroughly entertaining show, AFTEC continues on its path as an award-winning bilingual Learning TheatreTM that uses an integrated arts-in-education approach to enhance learning and encourage creative thinking.

Killer Thriller will premiere to the public on 25 and 26 Feb 2023 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre with tickets now on sale at URBTIX.

Exclusive school performances will take place separately and offer secondary students a full From Page to Stage® experience, including pre-show online learning materials, in-school pre-show workshops, live performances, plus post-performance interactive activities – all aimed to nurture students’ interest and knowledge of the English language and also literature, theatre, culture and the arts more generally.

MISSION: To stop a biological weapon trade from destroying the world
SPECIAL FEATURES: A play-within-a-play with an excerpt from Cantonese opera classic The Water Margin
Plus a post-show guided tour on and backstage of the production!

Killer Thriller tackles the theme of biological weapons and the devastating global human and economic costs they can bring about. The lead character, Alex and his assistant, the Dwarf, are assigned to infiltrate a top secret biological weapons trade and prevent its sale to the highest bidder by an evil organisation. With a plot full of thrilling twists and turns, will our heroes succeed in stopping this grave threat to humanity or be killed in the process? The price of failure is global contamination and the extinction of the human race…

A particular highlight is the play-within-a-play concept in which professional Cantonese opera singers Chan Yuk Hing and Chung Yat Ming perform an excerpt Song Jiang Kills Yan Poxi ( 宋 江 殺 惜 ) from the Cantonese opera classic The Water Margin. This hybrid East-West feature is another innovative highlight of the production.

As an additional bonus experience for public audiences, there will be post-show guided tours on stage and behind the scenes led by professional actors for an in-depth look at the sets, lighting, props and other backstage features.

The premiere of Killer Thriller represents a welcome post-pandemic return to the stage by Dr Vicki Ooi:
“We can’t wait to perform on stage for a live audience again!”

Presented since 2009, From Page to Stage® is a comprehensive Learning & Participation theatre education platform in English. Under the initial auspices of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and thereafter, as one of the English Alliance programmes under the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), the programme was tailor made to nurture secondary students’ interest in literature in English and an appreciation of the arts. It is probably the longest running theatre-in-education programme in Hong Kong and to date has reached nearly 120,000 audience members.

Killer Thriller is the 15th production under the banner of From Page to Stage® and makes a welcome post-pandemic return to the stage by Artistic Director, Dr Vicki Ooi’s as both playwright and director. An original play written specifically for From Page to Stage® that aims to bring learning through entertainment, Dr Ooi once again adds to her already outstanding legacy in the Hong Kong theatre-in-education scene.