Both productions work with forms that were largely unfamiliar locally: direct audience interaction, structural risk, and a closeness that leaves very little room to hide. Bringing this kind of theatre to Central Asia felt important to me.

The general producer secured the rights and initiated the collaboration with Ontroerend Goed.

I was responsible for the on-the-ground work: planning, production, local teams, and delivery.

Notes

These shows introduced a format that simply didn’t exist here before. Not spectacle. Not “big theatre.” But proximity, risk, and involvement.

During Fight Night, a core element of the performance – the audience voting system – stopped behaving as expected. We had hours, not days. The solution we built was improvised and slightly hacky, but clean enough to preserve the integrity of the show. That moment still feels like real producing to me.

There’s also something quietly personal in this work.

If these productions hadn’t happened, the loss would be cultural — beautiful shows simply not seen. And on a smaller scale, I wouldn’t have stepped on stage myself in LIES. That mattered to me more than I expected.

This was invisible work. There are no curtain calls for it. But I know these shows happened because I was there.