Taking center stage (2)

"A unique dialect to Macao, Patua's vocabulary draws upon Portuguese, Malay, Singhalese, English, Spanish and Cantonese."

Patua was inscribed in 2012 on Macao's intangible cultural heritage list and is considered a critically endangered language by UNESCO.

Miguel de Senna Fernandes, a lawyer by day and playwright by inclination, is the city's foremost expert on Patua and local theater troupe Doci Papiacam di Macao's director.

"Fewer than 100 people speak Patua," he says.

"It's not very useful today, but it is a part of our culture. We want to keep it alive and protect it."

He has been writing plays specifically for production during the Macao Arts Festival since 1997.

Fernandes believes that his play Dream House? touches upon a topic hot on the minds of every Macanese today.

"The most important question in Macao is where you live. The abrupt rise in our economy and the changes affecting our city came too fast. And they have caused a lot of problems."

One of the special features of the festival is that world heritage buildings serve as performance venues.

This year, the 1602 facade of St. Paul's will once again be transformed into a giant screen for Macao Audiovisual Alpha's architectural mapping multimedia extravaganza A Dream of Light. The 1860 colonial gem Dom Pedro V Theatre will house The Importance of Being Earnest and Imagine Toi. Even Long Wah, a 1962 teahouse, gets into the act by hosting Dancing to the Sound of Naamyam, a collaborative contemporary Chinese dance production.

"We also invited groups to come to Macao to organize special performances for the disadvantaged, to tour schools, and to host workshops, lectures and master classes," explains Lam.

"It is extremely important to expand our audiences. This year, for instance, we held a press conference in Guangzhou for the first time. We also launched an official MAF Weibo (micro blog) account, thereby increasing the festival's visibility in Chinese mainland, particularly in the Pearl River Delta region."

IF YOU GO

25th Macao Arts Festival

May 2-June 8, various venues and times.

www.icm.gov.mo/fam.