A concise History of Future

Theatre Performance

What’s it —— A Concise History of Future is the first play to have been featured in the world-renowned Berliner Festspiele Theatertreffen Stückemarkt by a Chinese playwright in 2016. The play creates a poetic imaginary world interweaving the past and the future, the south and the north. The characters involve familiar roles in a society, ancient Chinese and Western classics like Antigone and White Bone Lady, and also imaginary ones like a cat with a hole. While audiences go through journeys and dream-like episodes with the characters, one can also relate all the symbolisms of authority, power, exploitations and corruption to a real life totalitarian state in our present time.

What we did —— After we read the script, we get that it's a rather dark and poetic play. There're numerous characters in the play, but after talking to the director, we knew that the cat with a hole is quite a crucial one, which we illustrate subtly with the actress going through the actor's body with hand gestures. To parallel the gesture is another important symbol- the train that goes through mountains, connecting the south and the north. Together with an “outsider” from the future who wants to bring a box to the north, we utilize the symbolisms in the play to create a dream-ike image for the play.

Client :
Reframe Theatre
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Art & Creative Direction  :
Studio TIO
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Playwright / Director :
Yan Pat-to
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Producer  :
Felix Chan