Hong Kong Heroes

Field of Dreams is a story about faith and determination that is set in the 1930s. This weekend, the musical is being presented in Beijing for the first time. [Photo provided to China Daily]

To create the scenario of Hong Kong in the 1930s, Shum uses lots of dialects, which he learned from the elder generations from his family because they are not used by young people nowadays.

"I wasn't sure about the use of those dialects but when the musical premiered in Hong Kong, the response of the audiences was very positive. The songs reminded the older generation of words that they also heard or spoken at a young age," says Shum.

One of the most popular scenes of the musical, according to Shum, is a 13-minute song performed when the eight soccer players tour Asia to compete for money.

"It's performed with different languages because of the countries they visited, such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar. We watched the audiences' reactions and they were very impressed by the music and the actors' singing," says Shum, adding that in the Beijing performances, the musical will be performed in Cantonese with Mandarin subtitles.

According to Chan, there are lots of jumps and running onstage, which is a physical challenge for actors in the two-and-a-half hour production. Actors also trained with professional soccer players to make their performance convincing.

Actor Lau Shau-ching plays one of the leading roles in the musical, a young player who followed Lee Wai-tong to compete in the Olympic Games. The character is good at hitting the ball with his head, so Lau spent a long time practicing the technique.

"I enjoy the music very music. One of my favorite lines in the musical is 'no matter how far the ball comes to me, I will kick it back with my forehead'," says Lau, a graduate majoring in acting of the School of Drama, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and joined in Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in 2001.

If you go

2:30 and 7:30 pm, April 9.

Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, 9 Tianqiao Nandajie (South street), Xicheng district, Beijing. 400-635-3355.