HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL BLACK BOX FESTIVAL Comes To Hong Kong Repertory Theatre

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre will co-present HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL BLACK BOX FESTIVAL, running from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3.

Hong Kong Rep is presenting FIVE EASY PIECES. The show is a profound, funny and confrontational experience that blends realism and brutality, probing the limits of what children know, feel, and do and initiating them in the emotional and political absurdities of the adult world. Using performers aged under 13, and the biography of the country's most notorious criminal, child killer Marc Dutroux, the performance sketches a brief history of Belgium and reflects on the (re)presentation of human feelings on stage.

In five simple exercises, short scenes and monologues, the young actors sneak into different roles - a police officer, Dutroux's father, one of the victims, the parents of a dead girl - in re-enactments they've rehearsed with adult actors: a visit to the scene of the crime, a funeral, a moment in the life of Dutroux's father. At times funny, at times deeply disturbing, these scenes unfold against a projected backdrop of moments from Belgium's history, from Congo's declaration of independence to the 1998 "White March" against corruption. Aesthetic and theatrical questions blend with moral issues: How can children understand the real significance of empathy, loss, old age, disappointment, or rebellion? What does it mean for adults to observe them in these scenes? And what does it say about our own fears, desires and taboos?

For tickets and more information, please visit http://www.hkrep.com/en/event/18-bb6/

Under the theme "Becoming Real", the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre will co-present the first Hong Kong International Black Box Festival this Autumn. Featuring four unconventional theatre productions from around the world, the festival will allow audiences to explore the different possibilities of contemporary theatre and bring new thoughts that challenge the boundaries by directors from China, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.

The four unique productions from around the world - One Fine Day (Beijing), MDLSX (Italy) (by the Premio Ubu-winner Silvia Calderoni, first time in HK), Oedipus Schmoedipus (Australia/Hong Kong) and Five Easy Pieces (Switzerland/Germany/Belgium) - guarantee to offer audiences an exciting glimpse of the diverse possibilities of contemporary theatre. This edition is an invitation for the audience to spend a moment of disruption with us as a response to the world we live in today, as we can all relate that our world today is one of war and hatred, ruled by fear and misinformation. A scenario that ironically conditions us to absolve our agency by simply clicking a like, a share on Facebook or Twitter. Under the theme "Becoming Real", the four-week festival showcases bold and unconventional forms of theatre that blur the lines between representations of fiction and reality, and offer new perspectives that challenge our limits and understanding of the everyday. Each production also invites the audience to become aware of our own individual agency, engaging us as spectators, witnesses, consumers - and in some cases as non-professional performers - and allowing us to experience theatre in entirely new and energising ways.

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