Reality in Theatre: HerStory Polygon’s ‘Regarding O’
As part of the Documentary Theatre Festival in Hong Kong, curated by Pants Theatre Production, HerStory Polygon’s production of Regarding O is going to be run in this weekend at the Cultural Activities Hall of Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre.
Regarding O channels the topic of transgender, but unlike the conventional documentary theatre pieces in the past several years in Hong Kong, which are more or less verbatim shows of collected interviews and documents, Regarding O brands itself as another form called ‘reality theatre’.
‘We believe that documentary theatre need not to literally “gives a voice to the voiceless”,’ said Miumiu Law, one of the creative team members of the company, ‘but to show the authenticity of a specific community.’ It is refreshing to hear such statement as I for one also thought that documentary theatre is verbatim, the British form and philosophy which I studied for applied theatre years back.
In Hong Kong, documentary theatre is still in their early years to mature. Pants Theatre Production is one of the few theatre companies that are focusing on producing documentary theatre. Under Wu Hoi-fai’s artistic direction, the productions by Pants are under the influences of the work by the Tectonic Theatre Project in New York, as well as the Tricycle Theatre in London, which follows the form of strict verbatim theatre.
HerStory Polygon’s origin is actually also started from the elements of verbatim. In 2012, the company made its debut with a production called Menstruation Twitters, which talks about experiences of sex, body and growth by holding discussions on menstruation. The interviewees included transgenders, homosexuals, sex workers, and pregnant women.
‘It was a trial on the form of verbatim theatre on sex and body, and our inspiration was from the Vagina Monologues,’ said Wilfred Wong, another creative team members of HerStory Polygon. ‘We were blown away by the concept of the piece, and started to question about the possibility of doing theatre in other directions,’ Wong said.
It is a no brainer that the Vagina Monologues, written by Eve Ensler in 1996 on Off-Broadway, would blow one’s mind if one was still in the knowledge of theatre or a play as a linear narrative. Ensler’s piece deals with feminine issues based on the different experiences of the females’ ‘vaginas’, the sexual experiences and sexual topics that each voice has to encounter in order to ‘give a voice’ to these voices. It basically made a landmark influence to the American theatre after 1990s.
‘We were excited to discover this gem, and even though the Vagina Monologues is not entirely verbatim, we wanted to try and do theatre in that narrative based on the interviews we have constructed for the piece,’ said Wong.
In 2015, the company produced A Kitchen of Her Own, which, under the topic of different kinds of women working in kitchens, merges poetic elements in the text within the words in the interviews, so to derive a sense of empathy to the workspaces of the interviewees and advocates gender equality.
‘Personally, it was a radical move in Hong Kong theatre, but our company’s mission is to strive on making new possibilities for topics and forms in theatre, even in one as new in Hong Kong as documentary theatre,’ as Law stated.
Through talking to Law and Wong, there is a feeling that they are good learners to conceive new ideas through inspirations from here and there. As both graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, theatre is not what Law and Wong studied, but it is what they are passionate about.
Within the last five years, HerStory Polygon has channelled different types of creative methods on documentary theatre within each of their shows. Regarding O is also unsurprisingly a product that is derived from another influence, a recent encounter that they stated as the second stage development of their company since their discovery of the Vagina Monologues.
‘In 2015, I happened to see 100% Penang by Rimini Protokoll, a renowned German theatre company specialised in documentary theatre, in Penang, Malaysia,’ said Law.
It was one of Rimini Protokoll’s many productions of their 100% City series, which the piece consists more than just interviews. It is a survey based on the interviews done by the 100 participants (‘experts of everyday life’ invented by Rimini Protokoll themselves) in the city of Penang, which are later invited to ‘perform’ the survey on stage.
Questions and tasks are asked to do during the show, and these participants will need to act accordingly in order to show the audience the big picture of the city. The questions and tasks are vast, regardlessly on basic identities like hobby, occupation, ethnicity and geographical mobility, as well as controversial topics including different political views and religious views. It is a theatre piece that is not theatre so to speak.
‘I was having a rave of inspiration on how documentary theatre can further be developed other than verbatim or giving them creative licence, and I shared that experience to Wilfred,’ said Law.
‘What 100% City has shown can be a novel vision for Regarding O, to show authenticity by using “experts of everyday life”, to show the participant’s authentic stories through their primary texture,’ Wong indicated. To do so, it means that theatre is not going to be a form of make-believe anymore, but to show honesty in every aspect, even much more honest by using ‘experts of everyday life.’: non-actors.
The tasks for the participants to do is still under dark, but from what Law mentioned below, it is going to be interesting and sometimes might be conflictual as well. ‘Even within the transgender community, there are already a lot of conflicts and arguments between the different ideologies on being a transgender, thus there will be surprises to the audience by witnessing the real community shown on stage.’
Personally, it is a blessing to see other companies trying to test another form of documentary theatre, especially one that will afflict and dissolve the line between theatre and reality. Theatre needs excitement on imagination, and to defy make-believe actually sparks much more imagination within the audience on the community examined, because it demands it.
‘Regarding O’ runs through 18th — 20th August 2017 at Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre.
Showcase Information: Documentary Theatre Festival — Documentary Theatre Showcases
Company Website: HerStory Polygon
Originally published at The Typewriter.
