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Tai Kwun Spotlight: A Season of Performing Arts
Dormitory Town

19 - 28 April 2024

Tai Kwun and Tung Wah Coffin Home

The word "cemetery" has its etymological root in coemeterium, the Latin word which means bedroom or dormitory. In the land of the living, people undergo toil without respite; So perhaps they deserve a peaceful rest when in the realm of the departed? French philosopher Foucault said that "cemeteries then came to constitute, no longer the sacred and immortal heart of the city, but the other city." The cemetery has indeed become a city’s sanctuary in which its quiet inhabitants, in carefully arranged spaces, silently narrate their ordinary lives: living, working, taking breaks, working again to be followed by death.

Based on field studies and interviews, Catalan’s Contenidos Superfluos team up with local artists to craft its first Asian version of the award-winning production Dormitory Town. Guided by local professional actors and a choir, participants join a travelling recitative from the land of the urban-weary to where souls rest in bliss. Along the way, they encounter undertakers, caretakers and life enthusiasts who share their real-life experiences. While juxtaposing labour and rest as well as life and death, Dormitory Town empowers us to be more alive by contemplating death.

Dormitory Town (Ciutat dormitori) made its debut in Barcelona in 2021, being a winning project of Teatre Lliure’s Carlota Soldevila Creation Grants and Ciutat de Barcelona 2020 Scholarships. Co-produced by Contenidos Superfluos and Teatre Lliure, Dormitory Town has earned the Catalan Critics' Award for Best Street Arts Show and the Catalan’s El Temps de les Arts Award for Best Theater Show.