Return to the Overcoat

Q: How do you feel about returning to play in the Overcoat with Theatre du Pif after a two year gap. Do you sense any difference in your performance after two years of study in Paris/London?

H: It's fun to return to (yet another) rerun of the same play, because it gives me a point of comparison. In rehearsal, the thing that struck me the most was how large a range one has to interpret each line... how each line can be flexed and thrown in many different ways to convey different nuances of emotion. I don’t think I was aware of this range two years ago.

I also have a much deeper respect for the construction of the play. It's a really well constructed piece, and now I can appreciate it in a way that I wasn't completely aware of before. And because half of the cast is new, this time around I am aware of the different possibilities.

I did find myself itching in the earlier rehearsals to give my opinion about this and that to Bonni. I guess after two years of training you learn to be quite opinionated and think that you know a lot about "what makes a play work." In fact, in Lecoq if you don't speak up then you'll never get to create the piece you want because everything is group directed. However, here I am hired in a different relationship, and I need to respect the boundaries of this relationship. Because it is not so helpful sometimes for a director to get so many opinions from all directions; and I really trust Bonni's theatre sense. It may just be that she is thinking of something else at that particular moment; or that she wants to bring out a different quality. So my role is to work on my performance, and I give comments on the scenes that I'm involved in.

Right before rehearsals started I watched another production of Theatre du Pif's, "Nocturne Vista," based on the writings of Franz Kafka. I was struck by particular moments or particular gestures in that performance: Kar Fei's entry as the Boss, Sean's transformation into the cockcroach; Bonni's swallowing gesture as a vulture. Those sudden moments of clarity: when an actor's presence leaps across the gap and sears a mark in you as an audience member. And I was much inspired by that. I thought, that's what I need to practice as a performer.

And as I rehearse, I realise that it has very much to do with the sincerity of performance. As I am in so many scenes, there are no "good nights" or "bad nights" really any more; because every night there will be a scene, or even a line, that surprises me. And so it's become a matter of keeping myself open to be surprised. Because there are so many ways in which a line can be true. If a scene needs to be a bluish colour there are the possibilities in the palette from ultramarine to slate blue-grey. Mmm – how fun.

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The Overcoat - Theatre du Pif
17-20 Jan, 2007: Fringe Club (HK) 8pm
8 -10 Feb, 2007: Drama Centre Black Box (Singapore), 8pm

> check out www.burntmango.org/current for more of Hofan's current projects

Too cold to sleep

I am awake because it is too cold to sleep
I am awake because there is something burning in my brain: there must be a way. There must be. Muß es geben?
Es muß geben! Es muß geben! Es muß geben!

* * *

2007: A number of things have happened/are happening. Last week I went to Macau for a 4 day dance improv workshop with Makoto Matsushima and Toru Iwasita. It was wonderful for a number of reasons…

On the first day we did some sensory awareness stuff. Very basic stuff – slowing down to an awareness of the air molecules on the surface of our skin. Walking around the Macau Cultural Center and listening to our footsteps echo around the corridor.

And then to my surprise, I found myself filled with thoughts of creation… "If I opened a film with just a soundtrack of footsteps… I wonder how long I could sustain an audience with just the sound and no image?" … "That slope of water is just asking for a dance improv…"

I say surprised because of two reasons. One, because it was like coming across a lost sock. It's not that I had been overly aware of losing this odd sock, but on stumbling across it, had the feeling of "Oh, there you are. Someone's been waiting for you all this time in my drawer."

Second, because it made me realise how important creating is for me. I don't know how many people when they come across a place think of its potential as a place to dance. Or think about how they can make it into a film. And whether it is something that has been honed in me out of my training these past 5 years or something fundamental to my character in this life, it seems that creating is of something very very close to the bone.

* * *

The other thing that has been happening is that Jacek Luminski is coming to visit HK. For those of you who are not so familiar with Jacek, he is the dance teacher I followed to Bytom (Poland) for a year, and in an odd way, one of the reasons I am at the place I am now with movement.

So I owe him big time, and there's stuff in his work which I really believe is worth sharing, which is why I am trying to bring the Silesian Dance Theatre over, and connecting Jacek up with the local artists here to see if there can be some more long term exchange between Bytom and HK. And in the process of doing so, I have an excuse to get to know the people inside the circle of performing arts.

It really is a very small circle. Makoto, whom I took class with in Macau with, asked me over noodles, "So, do you do solo shows?"
I said, "Well, I'm just starting out in HK, but right now I am working with Theatre du Pif."
"Du Pif? Bonni and Sean? I worked with them!"
Ah, of course… I knew they were working with a Japanese dancer for the Murakami elephant show.. I just hadn't connected the dots up.

And for whatever quirk of fate, Jacek bumped into Victor Ma of Y-Space in Calcutta a couple of years ago. So I had been meaning to contact Victor, but it was only until I went to a Contact Jam in Y-Space that I dropped by his office and talked to him. And once I started talking to Victor and Mandy, things started to fall into place in a way that they hadn't so smoothly with CCDC and APA.

* * *

After a few days of phones and e-mails flying around, the flyer for Jacek's lecture/masterclasses is ready. I print the two A5 sized pages side by side on an A4 and look at it. This flyer has good energy. This visit is going to go well. No matter what happens, I have poured time and dedication to this; and was supported en route by numerous people.

On the minibus I call the Salvation Army Guesthouse. It is $150 per night than when they last quoted it for me and there is space. Yes!

* * *

It's 3:04am. I wake up, partly because of the cold, but also because I had been dreaming about making a business card for Burnt Mango and they had quoted me a sum of $1000 to make a huge stack. And someone said in my dream, "It's a bit too soon/it's unnecessary for you to make a card so soon.

And from there for some reason I started thinking about putting on a show. Previously I had been wondering: how do I mount my own show. My god, who is going to come? And then I realised. You know what? I just have to make good work and then people will help me. I have enough friends, Bonni, Victor, Sam Ho zi, etc; that if I make a piece of work and it is any good, they can help me launch it.

Or even if I wanted to launch it myself but couldn't fill an evening, I can write to the various contact lists and post an e-mail: "I need to create so I am thinking of putting together a show together at the Fringe. Anyone else who has this dire need to create contact me and if your show is any good/a good match we'll bill all of them on the same night."

When there is a will there is a way. Somehow. Anyhow. And now.

In the insanity of not-yet dawn anything is possible.

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> More info on Luminski's visit can be found here