Plot Points to Ponder
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, January 18, 2019 | 10 Creative heads Plot points to ponder Editor’s note: Andrew Chan helms Hong Kong’s leading experimen- I don’t agree with Arendt’s theory entirely. But I can appreciate the fact that she as part of the “post-dramatic theatre laboratory” project. tal theater group, Alice eatre Laboratory. In an interview to China was trying to present the truth and had the courage to go forward with a view that Did you have a target audience in mind? Daily Hong Kong, Chan spoke of his newest production, e Banal- she knew most people would not agree with. I have a feeling she was a lot stronger Since Hong Kong audiences are more used to watching theater in tradi- ity of Evil and his mission to create greater awareness about alterna- than many men around her at the time. tional form, we thought we would promote some of the alternative forms of tive forms of theater in the city. theater. Apart from the public events, we did a whole range of workshops She also drew flak for her relationship with the German philoso- on post-dramatic theater with secondary school students. pher Martin Heidegger when she was his student at the Univer- For the events we did in and around The Fringe Club in Central, we tried Your new play, The Banality of Evil, is the last in a series sity of Marburg. Heidegger was known to have supported the to attract people from across the board. of post-dramatic theater productions put on by Alice Nazi Party. We worked with fi ve young directors — Wang Junhao, Deng Haowei, Theatre Lab (ATL) across several months. What attract- The fact that Arendt remained life-long friends with Heidegger, who had not Luo Songjian, Zhou Weiquan, Zhong Zhaoxi — for the “Post-dramatic ed you to the post-dramatic theater genre? treated her very well, makes her an even stronger woman in my eyes. In the play their Theatre Laboratory Reading” series at The Fringe Club. We wanted to The hegemony of the text is challenged in post-dramatic theater, bringing relationship is not articulated but suggested through movement. give them and a group of relatively young actors a platform to show their it on a par with the other elements in a play. It’s a form that’s most suited talent to the audience. to the present time. I also like the fact that post-dramatic theater is not so You collaborated with Yang Ching-hsiang of Taiwan’s Yang’s I want to do more such programs for the city’s young theater practitio- much about the plot as about images. So in a sense post-dramatic theater Ensemble for The Banality of Evil. How did that work out? ners in the future. Most of them are waiting to fi nd jobs. It’s quite hard is a throwback to the earliest forms of performance art, which was mainly Yang and I approached the text separately. Yang was more focused on Arendt’s life for a professional trained in the creative arts to fi nd a job in Hong Kong. about rituals. and inspirations, whereas I concentrated on interpreting the text. Part 1 of the play is directed by Yang, part 2 is by me, and Part 3 is a joint e ort. You have won several awards in a career spanning What makes Hannah Arendt’s 1963 publication, Eich- Yang Ching-hsiang adds: I treated Arendt’s text as a guidebook, taking more than 20 years. What does such recognition mean mann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, ideal cues from it. For me the text was an e ective tool to display the many facets of post- to you? material for a post-dramatic adaptation? dramatic theater as well as the situations in Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The play is Prizes are associated with good memories. It also helps to mention them On fi rst reading it had seemed like just another history book to me. But a combination of the ideas of two directors, presented through Hannah’s political while applying for funding. Awards serve as selling points and establish now I feel there are parallels between the situation in Hong Kong today philosophy. Between Andrew and me, we used di erent viewpoints to approach a our credentials as a representative theater group from Hong Kong while and the way Arendt interpreted Adolf Eichmann’s role in the war crimes single theme. trying to secure invitations to perform abroad. during the Holocaust. I fi nd Hong Kong people these days are not very vocal about their ATL has produced several readings, workshops, interactive Is there anything on your wish-list that might help the personal opinions. They prefer to keep quiet and carry on, without caring installations featuring live performers and on-campus activities cause of Hong Kong theater? much to get involved in the lives of others and that at a time when so many I think Hong Kong’s theater people could means of communication, including social media, are available. do with support toward getting some more exposure, both in terms of showing our works I think the point Arendt was trying to make was that Andrew Chan, abroad as well as getting opportunities to ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ALICE Eichmann was not morally corrupt although he ordered watch plays and meet fellow theater people. THEATRE LABORATORY the slaughter of so many Jews as part of carrying out the “Final Solution” — her position is that Eichmann was just ROY LIU/ CHINA DAILY What about the paucity of perfor- following orders, doing without thinking. mance art venues in Hong Kong? This is exactly what seems to be happening in Hong Kong at the moment. Won’t you like to see your produc- All people care about are their jobs, and doing them well. They are not tions run beyond the standard four inclined to thinking and deciding for themselves. shows? I don’t think there are that many audiences Most critics of Arendt’s book held the view that not tak- for non-mainstream theater in Hong Kong ing responsibility for one’s actions does not exculpate who would fi ll the theaters even after four one from being party to what Arendt calls “evil”. Is your shows. That’s why we try many di erent ways interpretation of the text aligned to this view? of promoting contemporary theater — read- The part of Arendt’s text that most resonated with me was that she called ings, installations with live actors, reaching out the Jewish people for killing their own folks in order to secure personal out to secondary schools. All this is toward gains. I would like the audience to ponder this question very seriously. developing audience receptivity. Are there direct references to the present-day world in Interviewed by Chitralekha Basu the play? No. I think Arendt’s book refl ects a universal situation. It is up to the IF YOU GO audience to make a connection between the play and their immediate Yang Ching-hsiang, The Banality of Evil realities, if they fi nd such resonances. DIRECTOR, YANG’S ENSEMBLE, Produced by Alice Theatre Laboratory TAIWAN Dates: Jan 18 to 20 Does your play take a position on Arendt’s theory or does Venue: Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui it remain ambivalent? www.alicetheatre.com Playing with space Our pick of city events from Jan 18 to 27 Four unique futuristic micro-parks designs that bring new vitality to some of the city’s drab sitting-out spaces are set to become reality soon in locations across the city. Created by 17 Design Trust mentees who worked closely with local com- munities, this exhibition features full-scale models of their brightly-colored plans as well as features talks and work- shops. Masters of ink art Play is for the people Organizers: Design Trust One Art Group is considered one of the pioneers Dates: Until January 29 of new ink painting in Hong Kong. Local artists in Venue: Warehouses on West, Shop B, G/F, Samtoh Building, 384A Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong the colonial era took to ink to make their works http://designtrust.hk/ distinct from western art. One Art Group was influenced by the artist Lui Shou-kwan, who saw ink art as a natural starting point for Chinese artists Love in a warm place seeking to understand the spirit of traditional The hit musical Mamma Mia! returns with its feel-good, Chinese art. The group expanded on traditional ink happy-ever-after magic, featuring songs by the hit 70s Swedish pop group ABBA and a new UK cast. The sto- art, pushing boundaries to include surrealism and ryline is familiar: a young bride-to-be wants to find her real facets of modern Hong Kong and attracting artists father and invites her mother’s former lovers to their idyllic from the fields of culture, design and architecture. Greek island home to solve the mystery. What could pos- Artists from the west were drawn to them as well. sibly go wrong? IF YOU GO The exhibition at Galerie du Monde features Mamma Mia! One Art Group – Pioneers of Ink Art works by 10 major Chinese ink artists, including Organized by: Lunchbox Productions Organized by: Galerie du Monde Chui Tze-Hung, Kan Tai-Keung, and Leung Kui- Dates: Until January 27 Dates: Until March 9 Ting. Venue: Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Venue: Galerie du Monde, 108 Ruttonjee Centre, Arts, Gloucester Road, Wan Chai.