Machines like us

For the international component of its 50th anniversary, HKAF's organizers programmed hybrid performances to facilitate stars staying home. One such show is Irish troupe Dead Centre's production, To Be a Machine, based on Mark O'Connell's book of the same name, and starring Jack Gleeson. In the drama, the Game of Thrones alumnus chronicles his life upon awakening from cryonic storage to meet prophets from the techno-future. Anyone watching is uploaded as an avatar into a Dublin theater to receive intimate insights into his journey.

For Dublin-based artistic directors and Dead Centre co-founders Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, COVID-19 has triggered a reexamination of live theater. "The pandemic put great pressure on theater as an art form to question itself," Moukarzel observes. "What is it for? What is the essence of theater? If we cannot be together, can it still work? These questions inspired us to create the performance."

Gleeson was a natural choice for the one-man show. "Jack is a chameleon - able to both maintain the detailed performance often needed in film acting as well as open up to the conversational type of exchange that a stage actor has with a live audience," Moukarzel notes. "As an Irishman, he was able to pick up on the subtle cues and nuances of Mark O'Connell's prose: one Irish artist in dialogue with another."