Directed by Nelson Chia

This programme was first presented in 2017 at Centre 42, as “The Vault: Dialects & Dialectics, two monologues by Kuo Pao Kun performed in Teochew and Cantonese”, directed by Nelson Chia.

It was subsequently restaged as “Double-Bill: No Parking On Odd Days & The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole ” on 9-10 September 2017, as part of the Silver Arts Festival 2017.

No Parking On Odd Days and The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole are two of late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun’s most famous monologues. Both works have been staged in English and Mandarin numerous times since they were written in the mid-1980s. In Dialects & Dialectics, Nelson Chia – the artistic director of Nine Years Theatre – works with actors Hang Qian Chou and Tay Kong Hui to explore the cultural sentiments and grassroots sensibilities of these plays by staging them in Chinese dialects. Come catch this double-bill showcase performed in Cantonese and Teochew. Chinese and English surtitles are provided.

No Parking On Odd Days examines the rigidity — and sometimes absurdity — of bureaucracy through a series of confrontations that a man has with the authorities over parking tickets.

The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole is centred on a man who has been tasked to oversee the funeral of his grandfather. It emerges that the grand coffin is too large to fit into the standard-sized grave that has been dug at the cemetery, so the man ends up fighting an uphill battle against government bureaucracy.