2021↗
Purples / Purple Action
Roles, rules, speech and collective judgment become theatre within a jointly constructed fictional world.
Collaborative practice2021 / Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation
Final Solution
Speech, judgment and voting become theatrical actions within a fictional end-of-world assembly.
- He Fa’s role
- Purples co-initiation, participation in assemblies and authored reflection
- Co-initiators
- Purples: Shen Bolun, He Fa and Shao Yifan
- Development
- Developed from Coliseum tests into a model within Purples
- Documented practice
- 2021 calls for tests, assemblies and reflective writing
Complete chapter contents
Giving the assembly the decision
Final Solution posits a fictional end-of-world assembly in which participants decide which roles may remain. The May test call allocated twelve deliberators and four candidates. Candidates made their case through non-violent means, and deliberators decided after questioning, discussion and voting. The theatrical “execution” meant elimination and departure. Rules for the June test, July questions and answers, and later discussions differ, documenting a model under revision.
In a signed article dated 14 July, He Fa recalls attending several assemblies and reflects on how the fictional situation prompted recurring questions about life and existence. He also describes a method of converting speech into text and preserving annotations and reflection. His 2022 retrospective identifies this work as a substantial event within Purples, co-initiated by Shen Bolun, He Fa and Shao Yifan.
The work as a collaborative practice
The work moves theatre from predetermined dialogue towards procedures collectively enacted and contested. Candidates’ accounts, deliberators’ reasons, the limits of rules and subsequent disagreements become material for later review. Participants retain their own experiences and words; He Fa enters through co-initiation, participation and reflective documentation.
Reading the versions
The project introduction and presentation proposal preserve different stages of the model. The fictional catastrophe’s deadline, roles and voting thresholds changed. Some documents specify a two-thirds majority among twelve seats; the presentation proposal specifies ten votes out of twelve. Each describes its own version of the game.
The Presentation Proposal places Coliseum alongside Duel Club and CCTV in a proposed continuous experience. The assemblies documented here and that later proposal retain their distinct status. The project trailer is a montage drawn from multiple scenes.
See the selected Project Introduction and source page 5 of the Presentation Proposal.
Works & details
Moving image & related documents
Archive note
Compiled from contemporary calls, project descriptions, later records and selected project documents retaining their source page numbers. Event announcements, retrospective accounts and presentation proposals retain their distinct status. English translations were prepared for this archive.
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Work record
Final Solution, 2021. Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation. He Fa’s role: Purples co-initiation, participation in assemblies and authored reflection.
- Work / series
- Final Solution
- Date
- 2021
- Medium
- Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation
- He Fa’s role
- Purples co-initiation, participation in assemblies and authored reflection
- Catalogue section
- Selected works
Cite this record: Final Solution · 2021 · Purples co-initiation, participation in assemblies and authored reflection · https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/final-solution
TAKE A PATH ACROSS
Other paths from this work.
Rules and choices
What kind of outcome does a rule produce
Cocktail lets file values determine position; Final Solution uses questioning and votes to decide which characters remain. Both delegate judgments to procedures, but ordering images and producing consequences for performers cannot be treated as equivalent.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗
The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.
- Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗
The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗
Body and presence
How death enters an arrangement
Final SolutionTime Canyon / The Disappearing Tail
Time Canyon proposes a bodily journey through birth and death; Final Solution prompts judgments through fictional elimination. One is a sensory narrative proposal, while the other has records of procedural practice and reflection.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Period documentThe body as a passage through time ↗
The original PDF and mind map organize a sensory journey through digestive passages, birth and death; they establish a conception, not a built performance.
- Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗
The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.
- Period documentThe body as a passage through time ↗
Working together
Where disagreement can appear
Final SolutionThe Rooftop Howler
Rooftop Howler preserves recruitment, rehearsals, performance and later conversations; Final Solution preserves questioning, voting and reflection. Both leave an event available for return viewing, while collective rehearsal and decisions about character removal use different forms of organization.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Event recordProject statement ↗
The project account records recruitment, rehearsals, performance and later conversations, together with on-site 3P documentation by He Fa, Zhang Shaohua and Huang Lucang.
- Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗
The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.
- Event recordProject statement ↗
Rules and choices
How games enter theatre
Final SolutionTheatre Murder Case
A contemporary document describes Theatre Murder Case as combining drama and games; Final Solution preserves questioning, voting and revisions to its rules. Both bring games into theatre, but the surviving material supports different levels of detailed reading.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗
The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists the work under FakingAosome and explicitly combines theatre and games at P4; detailed documentation is limited.
- Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗
The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.
- Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗
FROM HERE, ELSEWHERE
Passages between works
Related records in the archive
- Purples / Purple Action ↗2021
- Saturday Four-Hour Duel Club ↗2021–2023
- P4 Theater ↗2015–present