Sinje Lee in Grand Expectations. [Global Times]

 

Grand Expectations, the final chapter of Edward Lam's Urban Trilogy, in which the Hong Kong theater director explores the meaning of happiness, fortune and expectations in a modern city, is to be performed at Beijing Poly Theater from today until Sunday.

The play is on the fourth leg of an eight-city tour which has taken it to Shenzhen, Foshan and Guangzhou. Like the two previous installments Design For Living (2008) and Man and Woman, War and Peace (2009), Grand Expectations tackles the meaning of happiness among city dwellers.

"What is happiness? It is about people's wishes and what they want to have. But now as people have more and more desire, they don't actually know what they want," Lam said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

Architecture inspirations

According to the director, the idea of examining happiness from the viewpoint of architecture came from Swiss writer Alain de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness, in which the popular philosopher discusses the nature of beauty in architecture and its relation with the well-being of the individual and society.

"The book talks about in what circumstances people can know that they will enjoy themselves to the full and what places can make them feel happy. Certainly, it is your home but to build yourself a home, it is more than a matter of design," Lam explained.

"Maybe because housing prices are getting higher and higher, in many people's eyes, happiness equals the key to your apartment," he continued.

Founder and artistic director of Hong Kong-based Edward Lam Dance Theatre, the celebrated dramaturge has produced over 40 productions whose major focus is on the realities and challenges of urban life and society.

Lam, also a culture critic, said that it is the time we are living in that made his latest work possible. "Fast urban development made people's expectations more dependent on cities. While enjoying the convenience brought by cites, we also developed 'urban diseases' regularly. So my Urban Trilogy keeps asking the same question: 'why are we not happy any more?'"