No one can predict the entirety of what lies ahead, but one can always extrapolate based on current circumstances. For local theatre company The Theatre Practice (Practice), they’re giving audiences a glimpse five seconds into the future with their speculative work All The World’s A Sea this August. Restructured and reimagined from their 2018 piece I came at last to the seas, this new play has grown to be more ambitious than ever before, with international collaborations with Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Jiangsu Performing Arts Group (Kun Opera Theatre) and Sun Son Theatre, and becomes an epic journey exploring hope amidst feelings of being uprooted and displaced.

“It’s an entirely different show from what we presented in 2018, and it felt like revisiting a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time,” says director Kuo Jian Hong (also artistic director of Practice). “The only thing that’s been maintained is the inspiration from the Buddhist concept of Ayatana, or the six senses, and the show itself will comprise stories inspired by this concept, exploring the ideas of displacement and how we respond to it. It’s also a very cinematic piece, where we put a lot of focus on the presentation rather than relying solely on the text for storytelling.”

Jian Hong goes on to unpack the show’s speculative features, focusing not so much on the technological aspects, but more of situational change that may or may not happen in the near future. “Displacement is something that’s going to be further amplified, because of the fast changing geopolitical climate, the speed at which the world is moving, and the increasing complexity of the rules we play by,” she says. “If anything, it’s going to be a constant struggle that we have to decide on how to approach or face, depending on who you are and how much power you hold. With these stories we’re telling, we’re asking the big questions like whether we belong, whether we accept certain conditions, or even who we are in the face of such displacement. The work demands you ask yourself how you will respond when faced with change or disruption, and I think about how my own father (Kuo Pao Kun) spent his time in detainment learning Malay rather than choosing to remain powerless, something that has been passed down to the rest of the family as well, and as a result, I think I rarely felt disempowered while growing up.”

As an international production with a relatively short runway, Jian Hong had to focus on assembling her team quickly, working closely with her counterparts overseas and interviewing potential cast members for their suitability for the show. “Collaboration is what leads to innovation and creation – yes you can think of things on your own, but when you bring others together, it leads to invention where you might think about how to approach ideas from a completely different lens,” says Jian Hong. “Conflict, when handled well, is what leads to innovation. So in revisiting this show, what keeps us excited is this new process of working with all these new people, where we bring together all these different styles of rehearsal, their own backgrounds, their own familiarity with language, and together, allows this originally pure work to figure out its own DNA and take on a life of its own.”

“So it’s more important than ever to make sure as an artist, we put aside our egos and assumptions, and learn to work together. You’ll never know if they’re the right fit for you, but I trust all these artists coming in, and their recommendations from their respective directors,” she continues. “And when they all come together, we then decide which story to assign them to, based on their own characteristics and ability, and use it to achieve more cultural specificity onstage.”

On such collaborator is cast member Clinton Zhang, from Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (HKRep). “I came on board this project after an online interview with Practice, and we had some discussions about my own background, and how I came to be in Hong Kong,” says Clinton. “We’ve been doing a lot of experimenting, such as reading the same lines in Cantonese and Mandarin, and it’s made us think about how different it feels, speaking in my working language versus Chinese, the language I was educated in and brought up on. The exploration aspect is exciting, and the chance to bring my own perspective into the work, and imagine how I would perform when placed in these imaginary situations.”

“The cast ideally don’t come in with any preconceived notions, but simply their respective skillsets, whether it’s opera or more experimental backgrounds, or even film and television acting, where we workshop these skills into the performance,” adds Jian Hong. “Every production we put on calls back to this idea of responsibility, where we are utilising collective resources to create a work, and relying on each other to focus, to make demands of each other, and to be open and trust each other, while praying it all goes well in an act of blind faith as we bring it to life.”

Playing at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre, Jian Hong also explains how the set-up will be kept simple, where their focus is instead on wrestling with the thematic and performative elements instead, making the most of their precious little time to work on accessibility for audiences, and the act of co-creation. “It’s a risk we rarely get to take with so many unknowns in the mix, and while it’s a difficult process with a potentially heavy topic, it’s easy to understand and relatively relatable,” she says. “We want to create something beautiful, powerful, poignant and affecting. This play comes back to the difficult choices we make in the face of displacement, and I hope that at the end of it, audiences think about how much power they have in their response to it, and realise that even having that consciousness and space to consider and reflect, is in itself a form of empowerment.”

Photo Credit: The Theatre Practice

All The World’s A Sea plays from 1st to 4th August 2024 at Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade. Tickets available here