Piccadilly Revisited – A Free outdoor film and live music performance

London’s Chinatown Art Space presents Piccadilly Revisited, a free outdoor film and live music performance which is part of the Thames Festival.

(Image via BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Piccadilly Revisited will take place on Saturday 12th September (2009) between 8.15pm – 10pm on the east-facing facade of the Royal Festival Hall.
About the performance

Piccadilly Revisited is a film and music performance inspired by the life and loves of Hollywood’s first Chinese film star, Anna May Wong, and the classic British silent movie Piccadilly (1929) in which she played a starring role.

Composers Suki Mok and Ruth Chan will perform their new contemporary score to the backdrop of an outdoor screening of the silent film, Piccadilly.

The score is based on a storyboard developed by co-writers Alice Lee and David Tse Ka-Shing.

Wong is the only Asian-American actress with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. She worked with Dietrich and Olivier, graced the pages of Vogue, Tatler and Vanity Fair, and the song These Foolish Things was written for her. She has experienced a renaissance in recent years, and Chinatown Arts Space is delighted to celebrate her achievements in Piccadilly, her seminal film directed by E.A. Dupont.

“Bold, beautifully crafted…one of the truly great films of the silent era”
Martin Scorsese

The performance on 12th September is the first work-in-progress showing of a cross-artform production to be completed next year, which will incorporate dance, drama and video against a backdrop of the original silent movie.

The completed work will explore the contradictions of Anna May Wong’s life, the impact of the stereotyped ‘orientalist’ roles on offer, and liberate Anna May Wong’s spirit through the intervention of a team of British East Asian artists. Contemporary sensibilities will bring a fresh, vibrant interpretation to the film and her life. Like a Chinese ‘hungry ghost’ coming back to right a wrong, these modern mediums will exorcise her demons and satisfy all appetites.

For more information and to join the CAS mailing list, please visit: www.chinatownartsspace.com

Technorati Tags: Alice Lee, Anna May Wong, Chinatown Arts Space, David Tse Ka-Shing, film, live music, music, Piccadilly Revisited, Thames Festival, Ruth Chan, Suki Mok, United Kingdom