International Festival
THEATRE METHODS 05
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

Purple Turtle Theatre (Hong Kong) 

Lecture and work demonstration
“Family Theatre as an Art Form”

Purple Turtle is a professional theatre group composed of highly experienced actors, writers and directors that focus on providing quality entertainment for children ages 3 and up. The group has been together for three years and has already established itself as one of the premier names in children’s entertainment in Hong Kong.

Our shows are highly interactive and filled with songs, dances and plenty of magic. The stories are based on classic fairy tales, and popular children’s stories given a modern twist and using popular music sung live with our own pre-recorded backing. The concept is to provide fun filled shows with a fairy tale storyline that changes regularly, so there is a different show every 3-4 months. Shows are theatrical, but are based on a concept where the audience becomes part of the actual show. Boys and girls, mommies and daddies are often incorporated into the scene with the performers, and could find themselves becoming fairies, angels, peasants, and even pirates!

With this unique approach to theatre, affectionately known as "Purple Turtle" style, well-loved stories such as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Journey to the West and our most recent show The Jungle Book come alive in a fresh new perspective.

Although well-known throughout Hong Kong for its children’s theatre, Purple Turtle also has shows that appeal to a more adult audience. In 2001, Purple Turtle launched their premier production Charr Lee’s Angels, tailored towards older audiences, and received excellent feedback from audiences as well as critics ("clever… funny… great soundtrack" South China Morning Post, June 2001). This was followed by the highly successful and if possible even funnier 0061/2: Diamonds are Not Enough in June 2002.

Why Purple Turtle? Purple Turtle provides the ideal vehicle for clients as we are designed to be a flexible and completely mobile organisation that can perform anywhere and to any size audience. Our main venues are restaurants, schools, clubs and shopping malls and as part of large public events organised by the Urban Council. We are often used by local schools and organisations as a way of bringing English-language theatrical traditions to local audiences who have never been exposed to this type of an art form. We are honoured to be on the approved list of performers for the Hong Kong Cultural and Leisure Department and perform regularly as part of Urban Councils Festivals.

All our shows are original and we are constantly upgrading our product to ensure that it stays fresh, so we continue to receive bookings for older shows not just those that are most current, this means that all of our shows have an almost permanent shelf life. This allows us to offer our clients variety and ensures a stream of regular repeat bookings.

We perform in English and in both English and Cantonese and our shows are deliberately very visual to appeal to members of the audience who may not be familiar with the storyline or who do not understand the language too well.

Family Theatre as an Art Form

A magical journey to create a special kind of theatre! Often looked down upon by other types of theatre as crowd-pleasing and not real theatre in the purist sense Family theatre has its roots in many types of different theatrical traditions such as musical comedy, British pantomime, dance, the old commedia del arte, vaudeville, street theatre and improvisational theatre. Purple Turtle is an English language theatre group based in a country where western traditions and beliefs are not well known or particularly understood and where English is very much becoming a second language. We have managed to bring to life and even popularise this particular type of theatre and with it cross deep cultural and language divides. Family theatre is often the first type of theatre a child is exposed to and can have a huge influence on how a particular child relates to the performing arts throughout the remainder of its life.

As such we would like to bring to the festival a demonstration of how we go from initial concept to final product. We would like to present a short lecture with demonstrations as to how we come up with plot ideas, writing, types of acting, characterisation, music, choreography, improvisation, etc., then how the whole thing comes together as a finished show. After we would like to take one of our shows out onto the streets to illustrate the points brought up in the earlier presentation. To show how family theatre appeals to everyone old and young no matter what language they speak or where they are from and how very important it is in encouraging children to enjoy theatre, and even read more.

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