Capturing Wonderful Moments in Life
Jimmy Liao’s picture books were first meant for readers. But through adaptations into stage plays, animations, films and music, they have reached out to a much broader audience. The transformations have been unique and phenomenal. As someone pointed out before, this has, perhaps, to do with the one-of-a-kind appeal in Jimmy’s picture books, which combines poetic charm, introspective depth in its seeming ordinariness, and a refreshing style that is gentle, relaxed, and comforting. The sum of it is that people of different cultural backgrounds, ages or even generations all find in his books something to touch their heart’s core.
The challenge of touching hearts
The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra has transformed one of the picture books by Jimmy into a music theatre concert, entitled ‘I Wish I Could Make a Wish’. It is a re-presentation of the visuals and texts of the book by using music, songs, dialogues as well as theatrical elements like costumes, puppets and the stage.
Jimmy’s stories always allow for a lot of room for interpretation and understanding, whether in terms of plot, content or theme. This certainly helps in adapting the works into other art forms. But one cannot help wondering: with the addition of music, singing, dialogues and theatrical elements, would it be possible to keep the uniqueness and essence of the original work? Meeting the expectation of the “diehard fans” who know the original work inside out is already a grave challenge, not to mention the even harder goal of touching the heart of a wider audience.
For this theatre concert, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra has teamed up with Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin and Taiwan playwright/director Ballboss. Can the performance achieve the heartwarming effect as expected of them? It very much depends on the effect resulting from the eclectic mix.
My view comes from personal experience. What makes Jimmy’s picture books so touching to so many people is that under his pen, even the simplest stories can evoke wonderful moments in our lives hidden deep in our psyche, or even in our forgotten past. They may not be earthshaking, momentous memories because they may be just a fleeting passion, an anguish or pain, not wonderful moments that nourish the heart.
Music as paintbrush and text
Music plays a critical role in this music theatre concert, where it takes over Jimmy’s paintbrush and writings. In other words the show uses the musical idiom to retell the stories of Jimmy’s picture books. Combining the symphonized musical idiom of the HKCO with his four original songs, Ng Cheuk-yin aims to recall the wonderful moments of life within us. The four songs that link up the story of the show are Every Minute, Every Second, Someone is Making a Wish, O Magic Lamp, Magic Lamp, Maybe There is Actually No Magic in This World, and the theme song I Wish I Could Make a Wish. They are all about ‘wishes’, a theme which can connect the wonderful moments in life for many of us. The tune of the French folk song Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman – better known to the world by its English version, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star – is also used throughout the show to wake up memories of childhood for many of us.
In fact, wonderful moments of life are not so rare - they are just easily overlooked in the increasingly fast-paced modern city. Jimmy’s picture books can call them out and trigger resonance in the heart, and this is what makes them so adorable. The musical theatre show is the work of a stellar cast of professionals from different domains, and the result should be a wondrous and wonderful recreation of Jimmy’s famous ‘moments’ – this I truly believe.
