Virtual Intimacy performs in São Paolo!

In 2020 ActNow Theatre partnered with Taiwan's Very Theatre to develop Virtual Intimacy; a post-digital participatory theatre piece that explores our relationship with technology and the ways in which it shapes our relationships with others. This iteration of the project drew on the practices of its makers in film, multimedia and participatory storytelling to develop a bilingual piece in English and Mandarin developed from work with local queer communities.

We’re excited to share that the project has been reprised for Mix Brazil Festival, a multi-artform queer festival in Sao Paulo, where it will be presented this weekend (11 - 12 November 2023).

ActNow Theatre’s former CEO and founder Edwin Kemp Attrill and Very Theatre’s founder and director Chou Tung-Yen have been working with co-producers Mix Brazil Festival in São Paolo for the last few weeks. They have been engaging with members of the local queer community to develop a new iteration of the show for Brazilian audiences. 

Virtual Intimacy tells collective stories that are uniquely queer yet universal to all. Queer culture has paved the way for mainstream society through a technology-based sexual liberation, with the popularity of online dating and apps such as Grindr. Virtual Intimacy’s world is one of abundance and ambivalence – of multiple voices and multiple narratives, juxtaposing the hyper sexualised ‘meat market’ of gay hookup culture with the ethereal, ephemeral relationships of intimacy in online spaces. Originally created as a bilingual work between Australia and the new queer centre of Asia, Taiwan, this work now explores queerness across borders and the unique languages of online and gay culture.

Audiences in São Paolo will anonymously share their personal thoughts and experiences on their phones during the performance, and hear from local community members about gay/queer culture in Brazil.