Review: HOME X, Barbican Theatre

Despite the recent focus on metaverses and 3D gaming, digitally-rendered worlds - and the hype around them - have been in the public consciousness for decades. Pierce Brosnan excitedly told us that "virtual reality holds the key to the evolution of the human mind" in the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man and since then VR has filtered into our lives in many forms, including HOME X from theatre group Kakilang.

Technically, this is a highly ambitious show from creators An-Ting Chang, Ian Gallagher and Donald Shek. Unlike most other experiences of this type, no headwear is required: the theatre audience can choose to sit within a 270-degrees setup with the computer graphics displayed on three sides around them, or a few rows back for a wider perspective. Dancers in two venues - Si Rawlinson in the Barbican's Pit and Suen Nam in a Hong Kong studio - interact in real time and remote audiences can actively take part through their own avatars.

Formerly known as Chinese Arts Now, the UK-based Kakilang (自己人) was established in 2005. Their name means "one of us" in Hokkien, a group of dialects spoken by about 46 million people in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The company have spent nearly twenty years telling the stories of the Southeast and East Asian diaspora through international shows and an annual festival.

HOME X leans into sci-fi/fantasy but not too heavily. We are introduced to the "anomalies" - centaur-like beings with three legs and a tree-like upper body - which serve as the representation of online participants as we are lowered into a leafy virtual world. An anomaly named Mia serves as our point-of-view character, spouting child-like exclamations, interacting with the other inhabitants - here a phoenix, there a turtle - and hopping around the landscape onto trees, mountains and other creatures.

After a meditative moment bouncing around in front of poetry, Mia meets two "giants" which we soon realise are realistic live versions of Rawlinson and Suen. Disagreeing over how they will make this planet their home, their characters taunt each other through blistering street dance choreography before switching to an MMA-style face-off; balletic Capoeira-style moves are matched by Kung Fu-like strikes soundtracked by soprano Colette Wing Wing Lam in Hong Kong.

After the battle, the VR takes a back seat and we come to heart of this production. A series of vox pops are shown with a variety of talking heads from Hong Kong, the UK and Iraq (among other places) telling us what home means to them. For some, it is all about food and family; for others, it is the political situation in their country or the effect their disability has on how they view their environment.

The mixture of technology, live dance and the often moving viewpoints make for an intriguing cocktail of concepts and theatrical elements. The VR used is up to modern standards but in the setup deployed here it doesn't engage anywhere near as much as when experienced through a headset and - even though I was sat at the front - the only time I felt truly immersed in this world was in the initial stages during the descent onto this lush planet.

More than once, it feels more like watching a Twitch session than being in a live show. The experience, while technically flawless, also lacks in theatrical execution when compared to the likes of, say, Le Bal de Paris and The Gunpowder Plot where the VR is far more immersive.

Mia is a fun creation with their cute quips and outpourings of heart emojis when happy. Strangely enough, this avatar made from pixels somehow grabs the attention as much as the dancers' performance which comes across as more formal kata than combative kumite. The viewpoints towards the end are informative and involving without necessarily being moving.

Despite being made up of forward-thinking and often entertaining components, this iteration of HOME X is less than the sum of its parts.

HOME X continues at the Barbican Centre until 25 February.

Photo credit: Lidia Crisafulli

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