The Trial
Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
21-23,26-29/1/1994
Presented by Urban Council
Produced by Zuni Icosahedron
Post Script from Director: Ending into the well - A Prefect Ending of Kafka's Trial
We see a desk in the center of the stage from off-stage. We see old people standing behind the desk wearing long faces delivering orders through starry eyes. We see children playing, giggling, hitting-and-running under the desk. We see an empty desk standing all by itself in a position drawing all the attention. Typically enough, it is the pre- and post- trial prototype.
After all it is just an aftermath, it is just a performance. We find some tables in a dusty warehouse. Different stories embossed with the traces of power, games, struggles and wind from East/West. We put the tables together to'form a stage.
We suddenly hit on the table and jump on it. Overlapping on the skeleton of power, game and history. We histrionically sing an opera. The whole thing is like a mirage.
We put packs and packs of illusions into a fully mirror-furnished well. The jury starts reading program notes. Through the grids, images multiply itself infinitely where self-examination, self-criticism, self-defence and self-discipline lose gravity and out of focus then turn into self-indulgence, self-defeat, self-pity and self-jeer.
At the bottom of the well, we see no sky. We drown ourselves by remaining seated at the well bottom. It is not about being sarcastic or pampering in anyway. It is a trial without Kafka.