Who Killed the Elephant 2021

Written in 2011 as a triptych structure and polyphony of language (prose, conversational dialogue, and poetry), “Who Killed the Elephant” experiments with the fluidity and interchangeability of narrative forms and language in an attempt to create a feminist historiography about Hong Kong’s colonial past and its present neo-colonial plight. As a radical interrogation of the practices and systems of a modern police state against individual feeling and memory, it demonstrates the capacity of a female writer in Chinese speaking theatre in addressing the patriarchal mode of discipline, state surveillance and capitalism in a confrontational yet poetic aesthetic.

Informing Helen Cixous’ ecriture feminine, Vee Leong wrote and directed the play herself. Revisiting the play text at the very moment of the present political turmoil in Hong Kong adds significance to both the artist and her team, as well as her global peers and audiences. The 2021 edition gave the text a new face, speaking to the resistance of the powerless against the larger machinery of suppression.

Date: 15-22/6/2021

Venue: Cattle Depot Theatre

Director & Playwright: Vee Leong