Sunbeam Theatre closure like watching a love one leave, says Cantonese opera playwright

Witnessing the closure of Sunbeam Theatre in North Point is as upsetting as watching a love one leave, said Cantonese opera playwright Edward Li Kui-ming, who took the helm of the 52-year-old iconic venue in 2012.

This comes as lawmakers Monday called on the government to help preserve the city's Cantonese opera culture, while scholars suggested the government should first enhance education and expand the audience base.

While the theater will cease operation on March 3, Li told Sing Tao Daily, The Standard’s sister publication, that he will have an “important meeting” with Sunbeam's new landlord Island Evangelical Community Church to discuss its future development.

The Cantonese opera theater on King’s Road was first established in 1972, and Li has been renting Sunbeam since 2012 – until Island ECC bought the property last year for HK$750 million.

After the theater closes in March, it will undergo renovations “in the next few years”, according to Island ECC, while adding that it welcomes organizations to hold activities that “benefit the community” as the church moves in afterward.

Sunbeam's closure hit at the heart of the city’s Cantonese opera culture, Li said. 

“It is not just a matter of finding a new performance venue, but a death and an end to a cultural landmark, strangulating and withering the Cantonese opera culture.

“It is such a pity and upsetting to see [the theater] is closing, it feels like a family member of mine is leaving,” he said while hoping to reach a deal with Island ECC as soon as possible in preserving particular installations at Sunbeam.

Sports, performing arts, culture and publication sector lawmaker Kenneth Fok Kai-kong said Sunbeam has been a cultural icon in North Point, and urged the authorities to offer help to the Cantonese opera industry which has been affected by its closure.

But Leung Bo Wah, a professor at Education University's Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, said although the number of Cantonese opera performances had doubled, audience numbers had stayed static throughout the past decade.

“If the other problems are not improved, even if there is one more [theater], or if Sunbeam Theatre is retained," he said it would not make a big difference to the industry.

(Eunice Lam)