Halfway

Halfway is an environmental theatre work by Xiao Ke and Zi Han that takes the whole of Shuhe Ancient Town in Lijiang as its stage. The work invited artists and local friends from Shuhe to take part in a shared process of creation.

WeChat guided the route through the work. Audiences could join freely and wander through the town as guidance texts arrived in stages. Following these prompts, the invited artists discussed and decided on their own sites and forms of performance. The performances met the audience “halfway” and finally converged at Sifang Tingyin Square.

Working as an open-source theatre, the project opened both performance and viewing to audiences and participating artists, shifting the protagonist of action from the artist to the participating audience. Viewing and performing were interwoven, blurring the boundary between everyday life and performance and deepening the resonance of sensing and participation.