If God is ‘the invisible hand that steers everything’, does that mean that in theatre the director is God? And is every play a dictatorship? Thai director Wichaya Artamat actually considers his artistic work an antithesis to authoritarian systems. In order to evade censorship in his own country, he turns to props as metaphors. With Juggle & Hide, Artamat now questions this process and his own role as the director-God. Did he force a meaning upon all these objects? This is the first European showing of the playful and radical performance Juggle & Hide, in which Artamat confronts the real political unfreedom in Thailand with the total freedom of the arts: pictures, songs, food and ventilators become a united front and challenge the theatre maker’s power; they simply take over the stage. Artamat thus asks one of the central questions in the Republic of Gods: Can art reach a point where it creates an utterly new world?
Concept, Direction Wichaya Artamat Text Pathipon (Miss Oat), Wichaya Artamat Artistic and technical direction Pornpan Arayaveerasid, Rueangrith Suntisuk Dramaturgy Yuya Tsukahara Sound design Araki Masamitsu Mechanics creation Laphonphat Duongploy Technical operation Piti Boonsom, Chayamon Srijaruyanon Sound engineer Toru Koda Object operation, Stage management Surat Kaewseekram Technical coordination, Assistance management Monthira Jamsri Producer Sasapin Siriwanij
Production For What Theatre Coproduction Kyoto Experiment, The Japan Foundation, Duck Unit Supported by The Saison Foundation, KYOTO ART CENTER, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
World premiere October 2023, Kyoto Experiment