The Left Hand of Darkness

Students: Leonie Felger and Ludwig Hock

The Left Hand of Darkness is a science-fiction novel (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin. It follows the journey of the main character, Genly Ai, who is sent to planet Gethen to convince its inhabitants to join the planetary union of Ekumen. He encounters a culture and society vastly different from his own, e.g. through its ambisexual humanoid inhabitants, and struggles to understand it during the course of the story.

The stage design follows the chronology and dialogues of Edward Einhorn’s play adaptation. It incorporates the idea of the journey, his changing perception of a foreign culture, the interplanetary character of the story, and the importance of empathy in how we perceive and interpret our surroundings. The stage layout is based on the idea of orbits, featuring continuously rotating screens running on circular rails. Each screen depicts an assigned environment of the story and acts as a window into the digital world, spatially mapped to its position in space. At the same time, the screens function as digital actors opposing the single physical actor, contributing to the strangeness and sense of misunderstanding he experiences. The biggest orbit represents the journey as a whole and serves as a measure of time throughout the play.

The physical audience is placed at the center of the four orbits on a rotating stand, facing outward and experiencing the play inside-out. They are immersed in a constantly evolving stage while observing the physical actor, digital actors, and evolving environments. Simultaneously, the stage is observed by digital audience members joining via livestream through 20 individually assigned ceiling-mounted cameras, movable along the z-axis and rotatable around y- and z-axes. This setup raises questions about the feeling of being observed, unbalanced anonymity, and whether balance is desirable. Digital participants access three views: their assigned camera, a map view, and a bodycam attached to the physical actor, allowing them to experience the play through the actor’s perspective.

The stage uses few physical props that extend the digital worlds into physical space. Visually, environments evolve from unfamiliar and surreal to familiar as understanding of the foreign culture increases. Elements linked to planet Gethen are crafted in a biomechanic sci-fi aesthetic, creating a specific identity. The use of text as a communicative and visual element expressed only through an ambiguous voice, emphasizes misreading emotions and removes symbols of fixed gender.