'Reality theatre' Fight Night - a democracy game show
Interactive drama aims to get audiences thinking about democracy, elections and political manipulation
Ontroerend Goed and The Border Project
At a time when the city is debating how the next chief executive should be elected comes Fight Night, a piece of “reality theatre” that aims to get audiences thinking about democracy, elections and political manipulation.
Part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the interactive piece takes the format of a game show with a stage set reminiscent of a boxing ring.
The five actors, or contenders, will “battle” to get the audience’s vote and sympathy, in a representation of an election.
“The show doesn’t talk about politics literally,” says artistic director Alexander Devriendt of Ontroerend Goed. “It resembles politics and voting. It makes you question how and why you vote for somebody — why you would trust a stranger to represent you and your beliefs.”
In Fight Night, the five actors will observe crowd behaviour and manipulate it to vote their opponents out. A different “winner” might emerge every night, depending on the reaction from the audience.
“Each character will have a unique personality, which will mainly be based on the personality of the actor.
I will sit down with each actor and ask, ‘What type of person would vote for you?’ They will define their characteristics and state who they think they will attract, and we will work from there,” says Devriendt.
“Sometimes I make the actors say things that make them lose votes, to see if the audience will still vote for them. Would you forgive somebody who makes a racist comment? Or do you move on to someone else?” The Belgian director, one of the founders of Ontroerend Goed, adds he uses controversial ideas for the works: “If art isn’t controversial, why bother?
We may be in a theatre, but that’s metaphor for the outside world”.
Devriendt says the idea of Fight Night came from his personal voting experiences. “I always voted for the same person because he was in a party that I felt a connection to. But the more and more I worked on the show, the more I realised that I gave my vote to somebody based on completely absurd reasons. So I looked into his beliefs and found they were different from mine,” he says.
The production has toured the world and played to audiences in Belgium, Australia, Britain and Turkey. Devriendt says he knows about Hong Kong’s political situation: “I am aware of Hong Kong’s situation, but I’m not going to pretend I know anything of its politics” he says.
“I didn’t want to talk about one specific government because I don’t like telling people what to think. I question, I reflect and, hopefully, my audience gets something from that.
“Someone who came to watch the show told me this is what Hong Kong needs. So I hope that it will help the discussion a little bit. I want to dive into this with an open mind and see what happens.”
February 26- March 1, 8.15pm; February 28-March 1, 3pm. Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, HK$240 and HK$320 Urbtix. Inquiries: 2824 2430
