328
THE ARTS
Torrens, but both the concert hall and the theatre were frequently used by the many amateur dramatic societies and groups. Those which gave public performances of plays in English included The Masquers (Othello), Garrison Players (One Way Pendulum, The Hostage, White Sheep of the Family and The Crucible), the Hong Kong Stage Club (A Man for all Seasons, Murder Mistaken and The Sleeping Prince), and Radio Hong Kong (Under Milkwood and poetry readings).
Plays in Mandarin and Cantonese, either original or as in the case of La Dame aux Camelias translations of European classics into modern Chinese settings, were presented by various Chinese drama groups among them the Dragon Dialogue Drama Group (Goddess of Love), Tungman Artists Limited (La Dame aux Camelias), Chinese Bankers Recreation Club (Sunrise), Chinese Drama Group of the Sino-British Club Hong Kong (From Bad to Worse, The Image of Our Love, and That Enchanting-Smile), The Chinese YMCA (Dark Waves), The Southern Drama Group (Hsiang Fei, The Prodigal Son and Begonia), Ling Tung Drama Society (Boil the Sea), and the Alpha Dramatic Society.
Performances of opera in almost every major Chinese dialect including Mandarin, Cantonese, Fukienese, Chiuchow and Shao Hsing dialects were given by various amateur and professional groups at the City Hall, whilst a dazzling professional production of Mandarin opera was presented by the Peking Opera Troupe at the City Hall after they had completed a successful run in a local commercial theatre.-
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The City Hall theatre was utilized frequently as a cinema, most often by Studio One, The Film Society of Hong Kong. Among their offerings to members during the year have been Fellini's I Vitteloni, Czinner's Don Giovanni, Buster Keaton's The General, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest, Bardem's Death of a Cyclist, Ophuis' Madame de, Jean Renoir's Le Caporal Epingle and Louis Malle's Les Amants. A film of The Bolshoi Ballet was presented commercially. Indian films were shown by various private distributors usually for one performance on a Sunday. The theatre was also used for a public lecture by Sir Kenneth Clark on Turner and the Liberation of Colour as a prelude to an exhibition of Turner's watercolours in the museum
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