On Saturday night I saw a double bill of works, inspired by memories of Hong Kong,  for percussion, electronics and live video at That Art Box black box theatre on Dupont. It’s quite a large, very black space and for this show there were video screens on two adjacent walls wit the audience placed diagonally across from the corner between them.  There were speakers all around and a drum and some other props in the middle of the space.  The performers for both works were Thomas Li on stage acting and percussing withTim Roth and Fish Yu in the control booth doing live video and sound.

First up was Three Bagel-tales of DAIWAN by Fish Yu. This consisted of three vignettes about leaving home.  In the first it was mostly live video of Thomas running around and mugging the cameras while manipulating various props including what looked like a paintball gun and doing percussion things with a drum, brushes etc while making amplified chattering noises. The second piece involved video of a spa and its staff interspersed with acupuncture charts and  live video.  There was more percussion and chattering and it got louder and busier as things progressed.

The third piece was a crazy take on a cooking show.  Things banged around in a frying pan.  Chopsticks chopping on a wood block.  There were complex interactions of heavily processed live video and a busy soundscape of what felt like processed found sounds.  It built up to a crazy climax with live Thomas cooking while prerecorded Thomas ate take out to an increasingly loud and frenetic soundtrack.  Quite a trip really.

The second half of the show was a more reflective piece by Thomas Li and Tim Roth called PEDAL MEMORY.  This was a bicycle based homage to Hong Kong past and present.  While Thomas cycled around the stage area or made modifications to his bike video of Hong Kong scenes played accompanied by location sound recordings with live video blended in at times and images shifting from screen to screen as Thomas moved around.

Sometimes it was quite “pastoral” with images of cyclists on bike paths, rowers on the harbour, seagulls, a market and so on but it also got more narrative and more pointed.  There was (quintessentially British) horse racing cut with Chinese New Year celebrations; the British army’s final parade cut with battles between democracy activists and riot police and so on.  It was, perhaps surprisingly, both evocative and moving.

I’ve seen a few pretty experimental shows recently but this one would probably rank as the most far out.  It’s terrifically brave and Thomas Li in particular seems absolutely fearless.