Tatler talks to the hottest playwrights who offer hope for Hong Kong theatre with their original productions in a series of three weekly articles. This week, Santayana Li tells us how the virtual world is a new possibility for the theatre when the pandemic leaves the world vulnerable to disconnection
Santayana Li sees the theatre as something beyond a sit-down experience. Her latest production, SHH—Virtual Reality, a short play produced in collaboration with VR artist Zhang Daming from Shanghai for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, combines live theatre and virtual reality experiences. Originally set to premiere in March, the show is cancelled due to the fifth wave of the pandemic.
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SHH portrays the life of a family of four during the pandemic: a mother who spends most of her time working as a head nurse on a ward; her father and her husband, who constantly misunderstand each other; and her daughter who yearns to reconnect with her mother after returning from her overseas studies.
The production would have been staged in a mixture of a traditional theatre setting and a VR room where audience members could don VR goggles to watch as the story unfolds. More than simply telling a story, Li wants the show to reflect what human connection means during Covid-19, when life is dominated by digital and virtual technologies. In traditional sit-down theatres, the audience focuses only on what they can see. “But with VR, our sixth sense is enhanced; the entire world of the story being told becomes reachable.”
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