Becoming Real: The Hong Kong International Black Box Festival 2018

Description

Marking the first collaboration between the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and West Kowloon Cultural District, The 2018 Hong Kong International Black Box Festival aims to bring quality contemporary theatre from around the world to our city.

As this year’s theme is ‘Becoming Real’, all four plays are sought to disrupt the everyday, make one a little uncomfortable, and in the end, have one leave the theatre transformed and energised with a renewed sense of agency.

The festival opens with One Fine Day, an experimental show in which 19 Hongkongers of varied cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds tell personal stories of happiness and heartbreak in a collaboration with Beijing theatre company New Youth Group.

In week two of the festival, critically acclaimed Italian theatre company Motus performs MDLSX, a ‘post-punk rollercoaster ride’ that challenges the audience to re-imagine individual identity beyond the definitions of binary gender.

The third piece is the Cantonese premiere of Oedipus Schmoedipus, a joyful, dark and irreverent collaboration between Australian theatre company Post and HKRep about death in all its forms; real death, fake death, and death as portrayed in world’s great theatre classics.

Closing the festival is Five Easy Pieces by Milo Rau/International Institute of Political Murder/CAMPO. Hailing from Belgium, this provocative show performed by children under 13 years old takes the life of paedophile and murderer Marc Dutroux as its starting point.