The creative team includes music director Amuer Calderon, sound designer Can Ha, lighting designer Lee Chi-wai, and set and costume designer Marsha Roddy. The set design at ArtisTree is all blue and white - inspired by Chinese porcelain. Roddy says her intention is to remove the audience from reality and transport them to a fantasy version of the city they know so well.

"Swire have been incredibly generous to the performers, giving them a really great space to work in," says McAlister. "Even just to build a venue - a multipurpose space within their office community that can be used for exhibitions, performances, talks - it's a real luxury."

"One of the things I've heard from the cast is: 'I've developed so much self-confidence from doing this project,'" the director continues. "The arts are really important, but so are all the intangibles: self-confidence, self-esteem; the ability to cooperate, co-create, communicate; to have empathy, resilience, motivation - all these wonderful life skills.

"For the performers to feel joy and feel so much better in their bodies than they did three months ago (when rehearsals began) - that's such a result from a project like this."

madeleine@chinadailyhk.com