Hong Kong play Vinalon casts an eye at a peculiarly North Korean industry
British journalist pens script on reclusive state’s ‘miracle’ textile
Theatre play Vinalon – named after the real-life industry of North Korea’s “miracle” synthetic fibre – will take to the stage at Fringe Club in Central this week, aiming to open a window into the country’s hermetic regime.
“I’ve always been fascinated – as many others have – with the subject North Korea,” McBride said. “I came across the subject of vinalon on a website specialising in North Korean news and I thought it was an obvious metaphor for the country.”
The play is set in a provincial textile factory’s propaganda department, responsible for promoting the myth of vinalon’s excellence, despite it being, McBride says, “by all accounts, not very good”.
It depicts the life of a group of office workers preparing for the plant’s grand reopening and dealing with a series of dramatic events.
McBride, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1992, at first thought of doing a documentary about the factory or offering to make a promotional video, he said, but while he was imagining the obstacles and challenges of that, a story started to emerge in his head.