P4 TheaterThe theatre’s address and the work of theatre
P4 once had a specific physical space. In his 2025 ten-year retrospective, He Fa writes that after 2021 its projects began entering parks, boxing rings, offices, office buildings, dance studios, lawns and bookshops. First of all, this was a change in concrete working conditions. Mobility or freedom alone cannot adequately describe it. [1]
A fixed space makes it easier to sustain rehearsals, store equipment and meet repeatedly. After leaving it, each new venue requires audiences, performers, sound and documentation to be arranged again. Those arrangements may generate form, but they also require conditions to be renegotiated. A shortage of space does not inherently produce better work. What merits study is how the makers respond, and whether that response holds up in practice.
What does a small number of seats change?
The December 2021 ticket announcement for Iceberg’s premiere offered only fifteen seats at a venue in Beijing’s Wangjing area. It gives us a concrete scale, rather than the abstract label of intimate theatre. A small audience and limited space at least indicate a social setting for spectatorship different from that of a large auditorium. [2]
Close proximity may make a gesture, pause or sound harder to overlook; it may also constrain a spectator’s freedom to remain an observer. Can someone turn away easily, decline to respond, or continue watching while being watched by other spectators? These are questions to pursue. The ticket announcement alone cannot tell us how the seats were actually arranged or how every spectator felt. Those questions require further comparison with records of the event and audience writing.
Watching in a boxing gym entails a decision
The Duel Club recruitment announcement calls its performers players and gives the audience voting power over who stays and who leaves. Watching is therefore more than seeing action from a particular place: it is connected to a decision that changes the conditions of that action. The competitive associations of the boxing space can be examined alongside the elimination mechanism built into the rules. [3]
A venue consequently cannot be understood simply as another room into which the same play is moved. The rules change why spectators watch, whom they watch and how they choose. Space and rules jointly shape participation. Remove the vote, and the responsibilities of spectatorship change; replace the competitive setting, and the associations carried by bodies may change too. These are analytical comparisons, not substitutes for checking how voting actually unfolded at the event.
The final rehearsal in a bookshop
The performance announcement dated 25 August 2023 scheduled Last Rehearsal for 19:30 the next day at Ciyu Bookstore’s Zhongjian Theatre branch (刺鱼书店·中间剧场店). It announced theatre performance, live sound, installation and camera documentation throughout. The text also stated that this material would enter the film Shoot Self with You. [4]
The bookshop event therefore faced at least two times: the gathering in the present, and future viewing through moving images. A camera had to find a position within this actual space. The position it could occupy would, in turn, affect what future audiences could see. Discussion of the venue consequently needs to include framing and sound recording, beyond the room’s decoration or atmosphere.
Compare spaces rather than mythologising them
A comparison of P4’s spaces can begin with four concrete questions: how far apart bodies can be, who can decide what happens next, how sound is heard and how the event is recorded. The answers will differ between projects. The close distances of an office, a voting model and filming in a bookshop each require their own documentary evidence. [1]
P4’s current institutional introduction brings its historical spaces together with continuing creation and a public archive. Theatre can thus be understood through both the history of an address and the work of organising encounters. After leaving the original room, what continues may be less a consistent stage appearance than a practice of repeatedly reconnecting spaces, participants and records. [5]
Sources and original publications
- P4 Theater, Ten Years Original publication ↗He Fa · 2025-03-08 · Original public article
- Tickets for the Premiere of Iceberg Original publication ↗p4剧场和你 · 2021-12-17 · Original public article
- Performer / Player Recruitment | Duel Club: A Real-Life Battle Royale Game Original publication ↗Purples / 紫色行动 · 2021-09-25 · Original public article
- P4 Finale | Last Rehearsal, Public Performance | Love, Death, Shoot Self with You Original publication ↗p4剧场何发 · 2023-08-25 · Original public article
- What Is P4 Theater?P4 Theater · Project entry · Public project introduction
An essay from P4 Theater’s official website, based on public archives. The analysis is not presented as the direct speech of He Fa or other participants. The historical source texts retain their respective bylines and dates.