As the closing installment of the Formosa Experimental Theater Festival, the CKS Culture Center will present one of the most significant non-mainstream theater groups in Taiwan. My Goodness Head (我的光頭校園) by Taiwan Walker Theater (台灣渥克劇團) is a look back at the education system in the 1970s, when the members of the major groups in today's alternative theater scene were angst-ridden teenagers questioning the absolute authority of their teachers.
Since the prolific director and playwrite Chen Mei-mao (
In My Goodness Head, the cast of five acts out one scene after another in junior high school life in the 1970s. As every thirty-something Taiwanese remembers, boys had to shave their heads and girls had to keep their hair straight and above ear-length. Portraits of late president Chiang Kai-shek and national father Sun Yat-sen demanded classroom salutes. Corporal punishment was almost the only communication between strict teachers and their students, and stifling cram schools prepared everyone for the Joint Senior High School Entrance Examination. The only relief was watching TV costume dramas about fearless martial arts heroes and daydreaming of living in a world without teachers.
PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
The staging of this play seems timely now in the wake of recent education reforms. Indeed, the high school dress code has become much more open: Boys no longer have to shave their heads and girls can do whatever they like with their hair. However, an equally significant repression -- cutthroat academic competition -- is still foisted on today's high school students. The present education system may not be much different from what Taiwan Walker Theater's cast experienced nearly two decades ago after all.
Performance Notes:
My Goodness Head -- will be performed at the Experimental Theater of the National Theater Taipei tonight through Sunday at 7:30pm. Matinee performances will be held at 2:30pm tomorrow and Sunday. Tickets cost NT$450 and are available through the CKS Cultural Center
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