Unknown Neighbours 1

An ongoing collaboration between Ranters Theatre and Creative VaQi (KR)

The Unknown Neighbours project is a site specific work exploring the links between a theatre building and the poetry of the social and cultural environment in which it sits. The project can be adapted to any theatre and its surrounding area.

Unknown Neighbours 1 takes its cue from auto-ethnography to critique cultural and social meanings in the area immediately surrounding the Ansan Arts Centre complex in Ansan, South Korea. Five performers found connections to the area by inhabiting the flow of daily life – wandering, conversing with residents and strangers and creating archives through video and sound recordings, found texts and objects. Beginning in a 1,500 seat auditorium with fifty audience members, the five performers split the audience into five groups ranging from thirty members to a single member, taking them on five seperate experiences. Eventually the groups meet up before following the performers into the loading dock of the theatre complex where they view a film before finishing on the giant auditorium stage.