Three artists of Comuna de Pedra (“stone community”) told The Macau Post Daily in an exclusive interview recently that their association will hold three online interactive performances next week with dystopian themes, focusing on interacting with the audience to reflect on social issues. The interview was conducted in the association’s office near Praça do Tap Seac.
Directors Jenny Mok and Lei Ioi Chon, and artist Leong Son U said that the name of the performance “Our New World of Amusement and Death” was inspired by three dystopian novels “Brave New World”, “We” and “Amusing Ourselves to Death”.
The artists said that it has been challenging for them to create this online performance, as some of the artists in the group are in Germany and Taiwan. All of the discussions and rehearsals had to be done online, with many experimental approaches to make the show happen. Nonetheless, they said they expect the show to resonate with the audience in this difficult time.
Interactive performances online
Mok said that the performance includes many elements such as visual arts, music and drama to present the dystopian ideas, but the core of the show would be “interaction”. “Our main goal for the interactive performance is to inspire our audience. We will provide some scenarios, and the audience will have to decide how they will act and different performances will be shown according to their choice.
“I think online platforms have been very popular recently, or should I say ‘forced’ to be popular due to the pandemic. All artists have to adapt to it to survive in this atmosphere” Lei said, adding: “It is not easy for artists to interact with the audience through computers; we have to up our game to inspire the audience through the virtual space. We have to make it interesting, shocking and enlightening for the audience to follow our instructions to perform well.”
Leong was more optimistic about an online performance because he can create scenery with digital visual effects and camera work. “The transitions between scenes are more organic to the performance, because the choreography is more fluid with the help of special effects,” said Leong. He added that the group makes an effort to link dystopia with visuals and sound designs to provide a profound experience for the audience. “It is hard for us to say anything concrete about the performance. The ideas are abstract, but the crucial part for interactive performance is that the audience is the necessary part of the performing process, and their subjective experience will vary according to their choice,” said Leong.
Dystopia
“Not only is the idea of dystopia very popular in movies and TV dramas nowadays, but it has been playing a major role since the 20th century to criticise social and political issues,” said Mok. For the two directors, besides politics, the exaggeration and the helplessness of the dystopian environment attracted them the most.
“Dystopia is surreal. It is not going to happen in the future just as a utopia, but we can definitely see some features in our society that are leading to dystopia,” both said. Mok said she felt that technology is the most terrifying feature in modern society, as we have become so integrated that it is controlling its user instead.
“Authoritarianism and totalitarianism worry me the most in dystopian literature, because I think these ideologies go against the principle of art – to create according to our will,” said Lei. She took the current pandemic as an example of how limitations are put on people, adding: “I am not suggesting any alternative methods will work better. I am emphasising the fact that people have no choice to resist these policies but to obey them for the sake of a ‘good society’. Sacrificing individual liberty is always the major theme in dystopian novels.”
According to Wiktionary, dystopia is a vision of a future that is a corrupted utopian society.
Mok noted that the performance will start at 8 p.m. on July 8, 9 and 10 respectively. The form of the three performances is the same. Admission to each performance is 150 patacas. The performances are only open for those aged at least 18 and a zoom link will be given to join the performance. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/388466493081396/.
These undated photos taken by the artists are the inspirations of next week’s performances.
Directors Lei Ioi Chon (left) and Jenny Mok (right), and artist Leong Son U discuss performing ideas, during last week’s interview with The Macau Post Daily. Photo: William Chan
