The poetry of puppets

Puppet and Its Double Theater (無獨有偶劇團) has been performing to packed houses for the past three years. Their exquisite marionettes from Bei-bei the Wing Seller and the shadow puppets used in The Happy Prince have attracted large numbers of children and parents alike to sign up for the puppet theater courses that the group offers in their workshop.

The troupe, however, isn't satisfied with commercial success alone, and has set out to show Taiwanese audiences a more sophisticated, modern side of puppet theater that adults can enjoy, as distinct from the two genres of puppet show currently prevalent in Taiwan -- traditional puppet theater (Budaisi) and the more modern children's puppet theater.

I Am Another Yourself (我是另一個你自己), the group's new performance to go on stage tonight, marks a departure from the troupe's previous adaptations of children's literature. The plot is composed of a series of dreamlike scenes without any dialogue. In one scene, a bride and her bridegroom walk slowly in anticipation toward each other, with the ethereal chiming of bells in the background. Their smooth faces glow as the bridegroom lifts the bride's veil. Then they kiss and fall onto a soft cushion in the shape and color of a red heart. After thrashing about this way and that for some time, they sit up, but, shockingly, they have become a pair of skeletons.

"Whether it means your intimate partner has become nothing like what you thought or that all marriages are doomed is up to each member of the audience to interpret," said Cheng Chia-ying (鄭嘉音), director and scriptwriter of I Am Another Yourself.

This is one of the major differences between the new production and their previous children's dramas, where storytelling had to be clear and simple. The montage of silent episodes, which are more poetry than theater, are performed with the group's characteristically quaint wire puppets, glove puppets and marionettes to the music of Chen Yang (陳揚), composer of several successful movie soundtracks.

I Am Another Yourself will be performed at the Crown Arts and Culture Center theater (皇冠藝文中心小劇場), located at 50, Lane 120, Tunhua N. Rd., Taipei (台北市敦化北路120巷50號). Evening shows are at 7:30pm today, tomorrow and Sunday. Matinee performances will be held tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. Tickets at NT$350 and are available through Acer ticketing outlets. For more information, call the group at (02) 2523-0812.