A unique, groundbreaking production that not only addresses the present global situation, but also hints at the potential technological future of theater, was 'staged' for the first time at the 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival, Xu Lin reports.

A scene from The Plague, a 90-minute real-time online play premiered in March as part of the 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Two rows of six images on the Zoom video conferencing platform show four men and two women cooking local specialties in their respective kitchens and chatting with each other.

It's not an online meeting, something that has become routine from the past year as part of global efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, nor an online cookery class. It's a play that's actually produced and performed via Zoom.

Modern theater should embrace advanced technology to explore infinite possibilities. Online theater is not a stopgap measure during the COVID-19 pandemic ... but a prelude to our future

Wang Chong, avant-garde theater director

The performers, who hail from six countries－China, Brazil, Lebanon, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, act in their own homes and interact with each other in front of a smartphone or tablet computer.

The creative work, The Plague, is a 90-minute real-time online play premiered in March as part of the 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival.

For a week up to May 31, audiences could book tickets from the official website of HKAF to watch the recorded version online. However, it was only available for those in Hong Kong due to copyright.

"Modern theater should embrace advanced technology to explore infinite possibilities. Online theater is not a stopgap measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's no death knell for theater, but a prelude to our future," says avant-garde theater director Wang Chong, founder of the Beijing-based theater troupe Theatre du Reve Experimental. He's directed various experimental plays involving multimedia.

The play was adapted from The Plague by Nobel Prize laureate for literature Albert Camus (1913-60), published in 1947.

In the book, a narrator tells the story about a plague ravaging the townspeople of Oran, which was then a French prefecture along the coast of Algeria. When fear and isolation emerge among the locals as the town of Oran is quarantined, each individual responds differently to the deadly epidemic.

It was in 2019 when Wang first got the drama script adapted from Camus' original work by British director Neil Bartlett in 2017. "I like the script but I thought there was no hurry to make it into a play," he says.

Wang Chong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

However, when COVID-19 suddenly hit Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province last January, he felt a pressing need to put The Plague on stage in 2020, the Year of the Rat－the rodent which appears in the book as the symbolic first omen of the plague.

"It's a bit pitiful that the play was finally put on stage this year, but the final theme has evolved greatly－it's about the global fight against the pandemic," Wang says.

As the book is about Oran's quarantine, his original thought was to set the backdrop in Wuhan, which was placed under a 76-day lockdown between Jan 23 and April 8 last year.

But as COVID-19 has become a pandemic, plunging the world into a series of unparalleled public health challenges, as well as the unprecedented social and economic impact, he made an ambitious decision to set the story against the prevailing global crisis.

"It's essential to bear in mind dramaturgical thinking, figuring out how to combine the script with reality," he says.

It's not the first time that he tried to use Zoom to make a play. In April 2020, a few days before Wuhan ended its lockdown, Waiting for Godot, featuring four performers from three Chinese cities including Wuhan, premiered online. Adapted from the tragicomedy by Irish writer Samuel Beckett, the play told stories about people during the COVID-19 outbreak.

As for The Plague, Wang wanted actors and actresses of different races that can speak fluent English, covering five continents on the globe. He also wanted them to showcase local scenery and landmarks from their balcony or windows.

Henri Emond (top) from New York, who plays a singer, interacts with Forbes Masson from the United Kingdom, who plays a doctor, in the play. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

To make it easy to adjust a suitable rehearsal time based on different time zones, Wang even regulated in advance which regions of the country the performers came from. Their final daily rehearsal was from 6 pm to midnight (Beijing Time).

From November to January, he expended a lot of effort to get suitable performers for the cast, with help from HKAF's organizing committee.

He auditioned about 30 performers, and it offered him a glimpse into how the global theater industry has been affected by the outbreak of COVID-19.

A Polish actress in London says she was glad to have the audition as it had been a long time since her last one. An actor from Colombia, who's also in charge of a theater, says the venue had been empty since the outbreak of COVID-19.

"The creative work represents the indomitable spirit and inflexible will of human beings. Even at this difficult time, we can also make it to produce arts," Wang says.

He has to overcome difficulties such as language barrier－some performers only speak English as a second language, including himself, and technical problems－network delays and acoustic fidelity.

Once their actor from South Africa disappeared and reappeared half an hour later at his friend's home, because there was a sudden blackout.

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has largely been under control in China, the situation is more serious abroad, and overseas performers were confined to their homes.

The Plague, a 90-minute real-time online play premiered in March as part of the 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The actress from Brazil also had to look after her 10-year-old child, who was with her in lockdown. The actor from Lebanon suddenly fell ill and went to hospital. Wang was worried about him being infected with COVID-19 until it turned out his condition was not pandemic related.

"Performers have transformed their home into a theater, and audiences will sometimes see their pets or family members. It demonstrates the reality of quarantine life during the pandemic," Wang says.

Karine Teles, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, tells China Daily that the most difficult part was finding a connection with her fellow performers and the director without having met them in person.

"Acting is an exchange among the people in the scene, but it's hard to do online via split-screen. It was only possible because the cast were extremely talented and up to the task," she says.

She plays the role of a journalist, who is moved by the actions of a doctor and others and decides to become a volunteer. "The role has enlightened me. It's important to acknowledge my own flaws and try to find ways of changing for the better like her," she says.

Wang says: "I can't make changes to the script due to copyright. It's like dancing when you're kept in shackles, but sometimes you can also make it fabulous. For example, I deleted some long lines and added nonverbal acts for the cast."

The scene Wang likes most in the play is a ritual to mourn those who died in the plague, with the six performers using different ways and different languages, be it religious or indigenous.

"It's overwhelming to watch the six split-screens together. It's like a multicultural work, showcasing respect of different cultures," he says.

Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn