The Mad Phoenix Cantonese opera performance
October 27 – 28, 2023
After a hiatus of seven years, classic play The Mad Phoenix (南海十三郎) made a proud return to Singapore since its last tour in 2016, winning rounds of applause from some 1,500 audiences in its two-day performances at the Gateway Theatre on October 27 and 28. The play was supported by the Singapore ETO.
Written by award-winning Hong Kong screenwriter Raymond To and directed by producer Clifton Ko, The Mad Phoenix has been run in drama format for more than 150 times in Hong Kong and Singapore in the past two decades and garnered multiple accolades.
Recast in Cantonese opera version this time, The Mad Phoenix was premiered in various cities in Mainland China in 2022, before staged in the renowned Xiqu Centre in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District in 2023. Singapore was its first overseas stop.
It is based on the true story of the legendary life of Cantonese opera playwright, Mr Kong Yu Kau, who was born in an influential family as the 13th son of a Mainland official, thus explaining his later pseudonym “Thirteenth Son of Nanhai”. Kong's gift for words was evident at an early age. His talent was spotted by Cantonese opera master Sit Kok-sin and he quickly rose to fame as a prolific playwright in the 1930s.
As a righteous and principled man in pursuit of artistic excellence, he resisted pressure to side with the kitsch mainstream genres and his career began to falter. Coupled with the unexpected death of his protégé, Tang Ti-sheng, also a talented Cantonese opera playwright, after a sudden heart attack, Kong was so devastated that he became eccentric, leading a homeless life while occasionally uttering words of wisdom. Many were confused whether he was a genius or simply insane. This earned him the nickname The Mad Phoenix.
