Local playwright and director Lawrence Lei I Leong has been recognised with China’s highest playwriting honour for his 2023 psychological thriller, Hide and Seek. This marks the first time a play from Macao, Hong Kong or Taiwan has earned the nation’s biennial Cao Yu Script Award since its inception in 1982.
In May, at a ceremony in Shanghai, the 70-year-old received his prize with a slight sense of incredulousness. “I never thought I could win this award,” he tells Macao magazine. “Most former recipients have been from major theatre hubs like Shanghai and Beijing. I didn’t think a small city like ours would ever be recognised in this way.”
Lei is a prolific writer with an acclaimed body of work spanning plays, short stories, novels and performance criticism. He is a winner of both the Macau Literary Award and the Macau Literary Festival Short Story Competition, and his 1992 play Stand Up Man was included in a collection of 100 outstanding playscripts commemorating the Communist Party of China’s 100th anniversary.
The playwright’s relationship with Macao’s quietly thriving theatre community goes deep. Lei is one of the key figures behind the Hiu Kok Drama Association – a theatre company he co-founded back in 1975 with local actor Yu Meng Sang. Known for nurturing up-and-coming Macao actors, the association’s productions have toured the Chinese mainland as well as internationally. It also cooperates with theatre groups from across Asia to help stage their plays in Macao.
Not all of Lei’s writing is set in his hometown, but much of it is. His 1993 play, February 29, is a dark comedy exploring issues faced by older adults living alone in the city, for example – and is still staged regularly.
Hide and Seek, meanwhile, takes place in Toronto, Canada – another city close to Lei’s heart. He emigrated there in 1995, then moved back to Macao in 2009. Lei still enjoys spending summers in Canada, where his daughter still lives.
Art from life, and death
Out of the almost 60 plays in Lei’s oeuvre, Hide and Seek stands out as one of his most successful to date. It debuted at the BeSeTo Theatre Festival in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, in November 2023, and was staged at the Macao Cultural Centre that December. The play’s enthusiastic reception led to invitations from the Beijing People’s Art Theatre and the Guangzhou Opera House in 2024.
Lei directed the play during these runs, which saw Hong Kong actress Ida Leung and Macao’s Kate Leong portray the two main characters – a retired teacher named Wei Ching and her daughter, Crystal. The Hiu Kok Drama Association, meanwhile, handled the play’s production and marketing while on tour.
Hide and Seek’s gripping plot centres on Wei Ching, newly arrived in Toronto from China with her life savings in hand. She hopes to spend her remaining years with Crystal, who already lives in the city with her husband and young daughter. Like many traditional Asian parents, Wei Ching expects her daughter to care for her in her old age. Crystal, however, has her own struggles and a more Western outlook on family responsibility. As the play develops, their strained mother-daughter relationship is tested, with both women hiding – and seeking – emotional truths from one another. The script captures their generational and cultural divides with sharp, insightful dialogue.
Set entirely in Crystal’s detached suburban home, key scenes take place in the house’s basement – a common feature in Canadian architecture that Lei had to carefully explain to his cast, as most had only ever lived in apartments.
Lei loosely based his play on a tragic homicide case involving a Vietnamese family near Toronto in 2010. The murder rocked Canada, and was particularly rattling for the country’s Asian diaspora – including Lei’s own community. “I couldn’t help but wonder why she did it,” he reflects of the family’s daughter, who arranged for her parents’ murder (the mother died and father survived). “She appeared to be a well-mannered girl. Apart from money, there might be some issues with cultural differences and values of family.” Later, Lei visited the murder scene and began writing Hide and Seek. The case has also been chronicled in a true crime documentary, What Jennifer Did, which premiered on Netflix in 2024.
Resonance and recognition
Lei’s play was praised for its sensitive handling of complex juxtapositions. According to Li Xiaoqing, editor-in-chief of China Drama Yearbook, Hide and Seek is “a work filled with warmth and cruelty.” Lei sees the strength of his story in its surprising relatability – despite the dark overtones. “The story contains life experiences that happen in many people’s families,” the playwright explains. “It’s about the cultural differences between China and the West, as well as the different values of family members from different generations.”
The play’s outstanding writing caught the eye of China’s top theatre experts and it was they who recommended Lei submit his work for the Cao Yu Script Award. Hide and Seek ended up one of five scripts recognised with awards this year, joining three Chinese operas and one other contemporary drama, out of 59 submissions. Only plays performed in the two years prior to the awards are able to qualify.
The awards are conferred by the China Theatre Association as part of the broader Chinese Theatre Awards, which also include Plum Blossom Prizes for outstanding performances. The scriptwriting prize was named for the esteemed 20th-century dramatist Cao Yu (1910–1996), often referred to as “China’s Shakespeare”. One of Cao’s best-known works is Thunderstorm (1933).
‘A strong belief in what you are doing’
Embarking upon his seventh decade, Lei remains intensely curious about human nature. He considers his writing a labour of love, and says he easily finds inspiration in everyday life – often jotting down notes about conversations overheard while out and about. “I used to have a notebook, but now I use my phone,” he shares. Lei laughs while remembering a one-sided phone call he once overheard on a Macao bus. “This woman was talking very loudly,” he recounts. “She said she was at the door of the listener’s home, but apparently she wasn’t – she was here on the bus. I found it very intriguing and wondered why she could lie so openly.”
Crafting a play is hard work, though, and Lei does face discouraging moments. “You must have a strong belief in what you are doing,” he advises. “If you create something that resonates with the audience, it will inspire you to write more. Additionally, you must recognise the significance of theatre; it is not mere entertainment, like a game.”
Lei’s motivation also stems from watching his scripts come to life on the stage. He relishes the collaboration with cast and crew during rehearsals, and says it’s immensely moving to see a group of people so invested in something he’s written. Indeed, for him personally, that sense of camaraderie is more important than accolades.
Still, winning the Cao Yu Script Award marks a definite milestone for both Lei and Macao. In typical Lei fashion, the playwright prefers to think of it as a joint achievement for himself, the Hide and Seek cast, and the Hiu Kok Drama Association. “[This award] illustrates that our goals and market should extend beyond Macao, as should our audience,” he affirms.
