Zuni Icosahedron

Theatre troupe

Zuni Icosahedron, a legendary performing group established in 1982, has pioneered experimental performing arts in Hong Kong. The name Zuni Icosahedron, according to Zuni’s interpretation, represents the aspirations in the combination of two expressions. Zuni stands both for a colour between green and blue and for a Native American tribe famous for its handcrafted art. Icosahedron is a twenty-sided object as well as the name of a kind of virus. The company undertakes a variety of activities encompassing workshops that tour among secondary schools, video art, an arts policy study group that initiates public forums, and a prolific performance schedule.

All of this has been achieved without significant government funding.

Following their production of The Opium War in 1984, Zuni began independently operating a small theatre in Causeway Bay. Since establishing its popularity in 1987 with Romance of the Rock, Zuni has performed One Hundred Years of Solitude Series (1982–96), Mirage, Vanity Fair—A Love Story in Glamorous Costume (1986), The Decameron (1988), The Deep Structure of Chinese Culture (1990), Two or Three Things… Hong Kong (1993–5), Feeding the Hungry Ghost (1996), The Book of Mountain and Ocean (1996–7) and Journey to the East ’97 (1997). Zuni’s performances rely on the careful repetition of images, gestures and words to create a metamorphosing network of associations designed to suggest arenas of social knowledge and feeling that are believed to be inarticulable.

Further reading

Lilley, R. (1990). Staging Hong Kong: Gender and Performance in Transition. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

REN HAI