Review-Lost and Found-HKPFF
2-11-14
By: Lynn Gong
A slow, spacious elevator carried me to the 7th floor of Wah Mow Factory Building. In the small but maze-like Unlock Dancing Plaza (UDP) U-Studio (there are layers of black and white drapery), I took my shoes off and sat in their comfortable floor chairs, (there were also around 15 chairs in the second row). Within the 60 minute performance, we laughed and sighed a little bit as the 5 performers slipped into different costumes and identities.
Founded in 2002 by Ong Yong Lock, Unlock Dancing Plaza has been putting its dance theatre production Lost and Found on tour from August this year in Beijing and Macau. The show came back to their Hong Kong studio for People’s Fringe Festival and will later play in Guangzhou’s Breaking Arts Festival on November 14.
The story revolves around the young man (played by Lokin So) working at Lost & Found while he deals with people who try to get back their chicken toy, dentures, love letter or Hula Hoop. As people come to claim their lost properties try to prove that they are the real owners, they narrate their obsession with or reliance on the inanimate objects. Playing with fetishes, the production thus dramatizes the modern people’s ridiculous and sad human relationships.
A beginning scene sets the satirical tone of the whole performance. After the Lost & Found employee interacted with a single woman’s leg part with high heels in imaginative ways, the whole crew went behind a thin, white canvas-like curtain at the back of the stage. When the lighting hit on the curtain, the performers weaved their bodies into different silhouettes that swiftly shifted from across the curtain. There was a beautiful shadow of a slender lady walking and showing off herself. Then in another moment, a bent short figure merged with another and grew taller and taller into a small-headed monster. The shadows played wonderfully with the lighting and angles to create many captivating silhouettes and funny moments.
Another humorous moment goes to the performance of James Yau and Lin Pei Ni when the two were fiercely fighting for a shrilling chicken toy. James Yau’s portrayal of a creepy man physically imitating the shrilling chicken is very hilarious. The comical timing was also effective when the young lady (by Lin Pei Ni) pulled open the man’s suitcase out of force and the catchy original music “Is it worth it?” (by Ng Chor Guan) played out. Towards the end, the play’s black humor manifests itself in literally fragmenting the human body. Different performers dressed up entirely in black exposed the head, the limbs, the chest and the hands separately. The different body parts entered into another comical fight.
The dances were well choreographed with a strong emphasis on the performers’ bodies. The performers devoted all their energy and power to the dances. There was no compromising when their bodies hit heavily on the floor, creating some jaw-dropping powerful moments. My personal favorite is Chen Hsin Yu who portrays the Woman. When the performers were playing a fast-paced public transportation scene where everybody was squeezed chaotically, her facial expressions always matched perfectly with her dance moves. In the Hula Hoop scene, her sweating body was vigorously intertwined with the hula-hoop, articulating an almost self-destroying desperateness.
My only dissatisfaction is that I was expecting more make-you-cry moments. The production successfully turns many facets of contemporary life into an object of ridicule. But an excess of ridicule can easily wear down. The Love Letter scene was romantically sad, but it would be better if it were rendered more intense or if more serious scenes were created to contrast the more comedic pieces. It would also be a bonus if the play could have produced more contemplative moments for the audience.
Overall, Lost and Found is a well-rehearsed production that naturally integrates dance, drama and multimedia. It was especially nice for Hong Kong audience to enjoy the intimate setting of UDP’s studio where their bare feet could feel the vibrating floor, where the visual and aural effects were at their best and where they get to interact with the whole production team.
Lost and Found is playing through Sunday. For more information, click here.
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