A Thousand Plateaus, 2021
Part of the Future of Performance series, the experimental participatory experience A Thousand Plateaus transforms the audience into central participants in a co-created exploration of sensory perception and identity.
Integrating virtual and real onsite stories and experiences, and presented without live actors, this original production pushes the bounds of theatre and performance, and delves deep into the hybrid realm of digital, fantasy and real-world reality.
Devised by an all-woman creative team – independent filmmaker Rita Hui, dancer Wong Pik-kei and artist Wong Ka-ying – A Thousand Plateaus features real-life stories about identity, gender, relationships and lust, each existing outside the mainstream social narrative and each told by the protagonists through various sensory forms. As audience-participants move freely around the site, they experience these stories in various ways, shifting back and forth between virtual and real-world perception. The experience is expanded with VR imagery, audio and musical soundscapes, on-site instructions, physical interaction and sharing.
Notes on the production
The production does not feature live actors or live performances and requires active participation by audience-participants. There are two sections of audience-participants, each experiencing a different sensory journey within the same site: one section use VR devices, the other section participate through alternative media. Both sections interact to co-create the final experience. Please note the audience-participant section when you purchase your ticket and read the remarks below.
Artistic concept
A Thousand Plateaus was inspired by the work of French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, and dramatist Artaud’s concept of “a body without organs” – the notion that a body unbound by conventional norms and manipulation is able to tap into a vast reservoir of freedoms and desires and generate an infinite flow of potentialities.
“When you have made a man a body without organs, you have delivered him from automatic reactions and restored him to his true freedom.”
── Antonin Artaud, French dramatist