Artists-in-Residence Programme

Hijinx from Wales has been invited to enrich the theatre experiences of people with different abilities by holding a series of newly developed online devising theatre workshops. Due to the pandemic, the Hijinx artistic team and local collaborator guide the participants through the devising process online in the creation of the final online Showcase.

Are you OK?

We get up, we get dressed, we brush our teeth, we eat our breakfast, we drink some water, we exercise, we drink again, we grow plants, we look out our window. If we are lucky, we go outside, we see people – at a distance. We laugh, we cry. We go to bed. Then we do it all over again. But are we OK?

A diverse group of performers from Hong Kong and Wales (UK) reflects on a world in lockdown, on how life has changed or stayed the same, on what and who we miss, on how we can help each other without being able to be with each other.

Are you OK? is a live performance, created on Zoom and presented via Zoom from the performers’ own homes.

Registration starts on: 9 Feb 2021 (Tue) 10am
Livestream Date: 6 March 2021 (Sat)
Livestream Time: 8pm
Broadcast: Livestreaming on the “No Limits” website

Approximately 45 minutes
Performed in Cantonese and English with CART Captioning in Chinese and English

2021

January to February: Online workshops led by Hijinx and local artist
February to March: Online rehearsals led by Hijinx and local artist
6 March: Online Showcase

Based in Wales, Hijinx is one of the UK’s leading theatre companies, with an international reputation for excellence in its work with artists with learning disabilities and/or autism. Such artists are at the heart of Hijinx’s work and they constantly challenge perceptions of what theatre can be and how it should be made. Hijinx’s work is bold, vibrant, anarchic and honest because their artists are bold, vibrant, anarchic and honest. Breaking through the limits of lockdown, Hijinx created a reinterpretation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis in 2020 via a Zoom webinar, and has performed it to critical acclaim in online festivals in the UK and Germany, attracting over 1,000 viewers.

Creative Concept and Director

Ben Pettitt-Wade (Hijinx)

Ben Pettitt-Wade is an award-winning director who has worked with artists with learning disability and/or autism for more than 20 years.

He has devised and directed numerous productions for Hijinx, including Meet Fred, an international touring phenomenon, which has been translated into 11 languages and has toured Europe, the USA, South Korea and China. In 2019 Pettitt-Wade co-directed with
Kully Thiarai Mission Control, a Hijinx and National Theatre Wales collaboration with an inclusive cast of over 80, which was staged at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

He recently won Best Director at The Good The@tre Festival, an international festival of live online theatre, for Metamorphosis, which was created and presented on Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Assistant Director and Text Editor

Michelle Li (Hong Kong)

Michelle Li is the founder and co-artistic director of Rooftop Productions. She holds an MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in English Studies from the University of Hong Kong. As well as a playwright, she is a theatre director, a performer, singer, producer and theatre educator. Her recent local works include, for Rooftop Productions, Testimony, The Furies Variations, Not The Maids, Lost Shoreline, Milk and Honey, The Beautiful Ones, A Series of Unexpected Events; and for the Hong Kong Arts Festival: Danz Up and A Rehearsal Log of The Wizard of Oz (“No Limits” Outreach Programme).

Composer
Tic Ashfield (Hijinx)

Devising Performers
(Participants from Hong Kong)
YK, Wan Lai-yee, Kathy Ng, Sam Ng, Crystal Lee, Terry Chau, Philip Chow, Gethin Chow, Aranza Rus-sell Terre, Theresa Leung, Sally Leung, Cheung Ling-long Angel, Karen Chan, Lemon Tsang, Leung Ho-hei, Yeung Sze-lok Llyr, Lai Yuk-lam, Clayton Lo, Harmony Timbre, Ben Kwong, Hsu Sing-chin

(Hijinx)
Lindsay Foster, Michelle McTernan, Richard Newnham, Owen Pugh, Sian Walker, Faye Wiggan

Are you OK?

2021

Production Team

(Hijinx)

(Hong Kong)

Co-presented by

Strategic Supporting Partner