Tragicomedy "Fortune Plus Misery"

Venue: Nanfang Theater
Time: 2008-07-18, 25
Tickets: VIP￥150, ￥100, ￥60
Booking: www.eastpiao.cn, http://eastpiao.cn/ticket(215)ticketinfo.html

Stage photo

Fortune does not simply mean to gain and misery does not merely mean to lose; fortune and misery never have such simplistic and absolute definitions.

Fortune Plus Misery is a Cantonese tragicomedy, which tells the stories of fictional Guangzhou residents. The main characters, including a taxi driver, an obstetrician/gynecologist, the girlfriend of a tycoon, a wealthy woman, and an unemployed girl, come from all walks of life, but they uniformly regard themselves as the most misfortunate persons in the world. In a public lavatory, a detective tries to draw out their unspeakable secrets using psychological tactics.

The poster

The name of the play in Cantonese sounds remarkably like a vulgar colloquialism. Some humorous moments aside, however, the play reflects the dark side of reality, featuring heated topics like adultery, youth suicide, soaring prices.

(By Sharon Chan, Usha Chilukuri)