Theatre must never be detached from life and the public. It must not become a fashionable object for the petty bourgeoisie or a means and talisman through which celebrities display their status. Still less should it be transformed into an aphrodisiac that befuddles the struggling proletariat.

The heterogeneity of life is an inborn, precious gift. Do not try to suppress it, seek to divert it, or depend on anyone to solve your problems. Listen carefully and feel it; you must also learn to try to touch it. Do not be afraid. It moves, leaps, flashes, rises and falls, tosses this way and that. It is elusive, mischievous, wilful, unfathomable, unrestrained, hidden in the invisible. It is red all over and cold as frost, full of passions and desires, breaking through the door and bearing down imperiously. It can only be itself, and you too can only be it.

Contradictions will not disappear, and dialogue must continue. Through repeated quarrels and collisions, contingency can become necessity and life and history can begin. We cannot remain bewildered and ignorant forever. The positions of slave and master ought continually to change places if things are to remain interesting; the river beneath Heraclitus’s feet has never stopped churning.

Let us grasp together the happiness of existence itself. Even if it appears broken, fat, bloated, timid, cowardly, petty, shifty-eyed and deceitful, I will willingly jump into it and wriggle joyfully. I am with you. Be more disgusting still, so that the world itself can show its most vivid face, encourage me onwards and let creation continue endlessly with an out-of-tune stride.

Vortex, North Wind Theatre’s second creative undertaking, is recruiting. Once again, eight creators will gather to develop the work collectively as a creative group, with a public performance on 12 March.

Note: we hope creators will have sufficient initiative of their own and participate in every aspect of making theatre, including but not limited to writing, performance, sound, lighting, installation, publicity and documentation.

The Vortex call for creators:

Have you ever been held hostage? Do you unquestioningly accept the celebrated writers and “golden quotations” promoted by the propaganda machine as endorsements for your own enjoyment?

Do you think women and men are two different species?

Have you been held hostage by sex? Between you and your sexual organs, which is attached to which?

What are your criteria for loving someone? Who gave them to you?

Should you escape being held hostage? In a lonely life, must one sink hysterically into the uniform spectacle of consumerism to gain a sense of belonging? Would you remain unmarried all your life for freedom? Do you think love and marriage can exist at the same time?

Can you really escape society’s hold over you? Or what would a person who truly existed outside society be like? Would you consider the question of bride price? Would you wear a diamond at your wedding when consumerism has sent its price soaring?

Or perhaps free will does not exist at all…

We do not know. We do not know when such a person will arrive, or whether they exist.

To find an answer, we can only put onstage those who have been swept along and held hostage. They have already mutated in their confrontation with the Big Hand (the Right Hand). Tragedy has already happened to them, and they resist like corpses. These characters will exert pressure, making audiences denounce them and, in turn, loathe the selves they have become through compromise.

This needs to make it difficult for audiences to identify with what they see, sympathise with the self onstage and settle into the pleasure of emotional release. When the characters appear, they need already to have been changed and to remain that way—just as in reality no one ever warned us that life was about to take us hostage, that we were about to be influenced imperceptibly.

This is the only way we can discuss what freedom is.

We do not know when such a person will arrive, or whether they exist.

As for whether marriage is sacred:

“I love them. What other reason could there be?”

If Vortex interests you and you would like to help create it, record a video of about two minutes and send it to the Captain. We will contact you this week. We look forward to your arrival.

Scan the Captain’s WeChat QR code

Let practice test the truth.