“Play OFF” stands as a contemporary performing arts platform/festival that unfolds in the margin of HKPAX, uniting the local scene and featuring exciting emerging artists from the greater bay area and abroad. As an OFF festival, it wants to complement the main programming of HKPAX both on an artistic and a discursive level, aiming at both a local and international/professional audience with an interest in contemporary dance, theater and performance that defies all boundaries, challenges itself and questions its context and medium.

A “play off” in sports usually marks a showdown between two great teams.  However, for us, it’s more of a dialogue than a battle. Each edition of Play OFF invites a vibrant foreign performing arts scene to engage with in a dialogue with the scene in Hong Kong and the greater bay area.  It serves as a platform for connection, discovery, learning, and collaboration. Our inaugural focus will be on Brussels, Belgium. Renowned as Europe’s contemporary performing arts capital, the greater Brussels region is home to internationally acclaimed artists like Rosas/A.T. De Keersmaeker, Jan Martens, Meg Stuart, Jan Fabre, Mette Ingvartsen, Damien Jalet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and many more…  With over 1000 professional contemporary dance/theater works (co)produced each year and touring its works internationally over 3000 times each year, this region is by far the most dense and vibrant European region when it comes to contemporary performing arts.  During the “play off” likeminded organisations and artists of both the Brussels region and the Greater Bay Area will meet each other in both open and closed events/sessions to better understand each other’s ways of working and thinking, both on a productional and artistic level.  Within the “Play OFF” format we also foresee a return visit of a delegation of Hong Kong and Bay Area presenters/artists to Brussels/Belgium on a later moment to get to know the Belgian scene even better and to consolidate partnerships initiated during Play OFF in Hong Kong. 

“Play OFF” encompasses playfulness in multiple dimensions; there will be theatre-, dance- and interdisciplinary “plays”, yet we also understand the idea of ‘playing’ in the sense of experimenting, challenging, toying with concepts, ideas and what we understand as dance/theater/performance today, often with a good amount of playfulness.  ‘Playing’ often also implies a communal aspect: playing together, interacting, creating a joyful experience.  Many of the works presented also have a relational aspect, bringing people together in a creative and often participative encounter.

The programme of “Play OFF” will be split into “OFF Days” and “OFF Nights”.  During the day, there will be open studio visits and showings organised by co-presenting partners, as well as talks and workshops organised in our festival center at the Hong Kong Fringe Club.  At night there will be a progamme of performances at both Hong Kong Fringe Club as well as in alternative and partner venues. Later at night the Hong Kong Fringe Club also transforms into a vibrant late night meeting point and playground with exciting performative encounters that could turn into wild party vibe.

The programme will be designed in consideration with the HKPAX programme, avoiding an overlap of sessions and performances at HKPAX that may also interest our audience and vice versa. The platform is a production of Hong Kong Fringe Club and ClapClapLab, a new production office based in Hong Kong (incorporated as PluginAsia Limited) and Brussels (incorporated as You’re Up! vzw) in partnership with various co-presenting and co-producing partners in Hong Kong.  ClapClapLab will mostly be focusing on the international programming in co-ordination with the Belgian partners and co-presenting partners in Hong Kong, and on the overall marketing and production of the platform.  The local programme will be mostly curated and produced by the local co-producing and -presenting partners in close collaboration with ClapClapLab and Hong Kong Fringe Club.