Theater in a pickle

On Sept. 26, Hugh Lee (李國修), artistic director of the Ping-fong Acting Troupe (屏風表演班) announced that the production of their new play, Incredible Country (不思議的國), the sixth installment in a popular series of shows dealing with contemporary Taiwanese life, would be canceled. For one of Taiwan's most established theater companies with a record of many outstanding productions to its credit, this move shocked many, even in the indisputably unhappy environment that theater in Taiwan has found itself in recent years.

In the week before Lee made his announcement, the Taipei Arts International Association (TAIA, 台北藝術推廣協會), in coordination with the British Council, had brought over eight theater professionals from the UK for the 21st Century Creative Industries Showcase (二十一世紀創意工業研討會). This activity included seminars on ways of stimulating the performing arts industry, during which many local theater professionals voiced their dissatisfaction with the environment in which they are forced to contend.

The cancelation of the Ping-fong production lent poignancy to the discussions of the previous week. "I was shocked," said Fu Yu-hway (傅裕會), editor of Performing Arts Review (表演藝術). "I had never heard of a troupe canceling a show already rehearsed and ready to go on stage. It's like killing a baby that is almost born."

In his open letter announcing the cancelation, Lee said that in the two months during which tickets had been available, sales had failed to reach 20 percent of capacity. Ping-fong is known for its strongly "Taiwanese" repertoire -- dealing with the social and political concerns of modern day Taiwanese people -- and its insistence on longer runs and wide touring schedule. To put on the play as had been intended, Lee said the company would incur losses of up to NT$9 million, which the company was unable to shoulder.

For all the gloom and doom, other theater groups have managed to keep going, but even Stan Lai (賴聲川) of the Performance Workshop (表演工作坊), which managed to achieve strong ticket sales for its new Chinese-language production of Waiting for Godot (等待狗頭) last week, said that rising costs were hurting everyone. "We manage by cutting back on non-essentials," he said during a rehearsal in a ballet training room in the depths of the National Concert Hall. While other shows have been canceled or delayed as a result of the devastation caused by Typhoon Nari, none has reacted as drastically as Ping-fong.

Lai said that popular shows have been hit hardest, and was pleased that people were still coming to see such a cerebral work as Waiting for Godot. "I am encouraged that people are still coming to a show like this," he said. "If they stopped, it would mean the economic situation had managed to hit a blow against culture." While suggesting that creativity is still very much alive and well in Taiwan, Lai suggested that current government policies hamper higher achievements.

Funding culture

That culture must be paid for is one of the uncomfortable truths of the theater world, and was one the focal points of the recent seminars. The Council of Cultural Affairs, the National Culture and Arts Foundation (國家文化藝術基金會) and the Cultural Bureaus of various city governments provide a large proportion of such funding, and while it has facilitated the realization of many excellent projects, the expenditure is not always seen as beneficial to creativity.