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The circus comes to town at Eslite

Reading sensationally is the subject of Shakespeare's Wild Sisters' new play, 30P: Eslite anti-reader. PHOTO COURTESY OF ESLITE BOOKSTORE

It's widely known that Taipei's Eslite Bookstore is open 24/7, but a 24-hour circus venue?

Basement Open 2003 (誠品藝術節), is a one-month theater show beginning this weekend. Eslite Bookstore has held six previous Basement Open performances intended to celebrate the spirit of the underground.

This time the theme -- One Stage, Four Plays (一個舞台, 四齣戲) -- will be theater and the organizer has invited four leading theater groups to pull in the crowds. The four groups are Shakespeare's Wild Sisters group (莎士比亞的妹妹們的劇團), The Century of Contemporary Dance Company (世紀當代舞團), Taiwan Walker Theater (台灣渥克劇團) and Off Performance Workshop (外表坊實驗團). Craig Quintero from the Riverbed Theater is the man behind the original idea and takes charge of stage design.

Wei Ying Chuan (魏瑛娟) and Wang Jia-ming (王嘉明) from the Shakespeare's Wild Sisters have created a sensational play slightly teasing the bookstore called 30P: Eslite anti-reader, in which 30 actors will go on stage "exploring" 30 different reading styles and discussing where the pleasure of reading come from.

"It is a satirical lament on the death of reading. We will do lots of parody to point out fast-food style reading habits -- which is pretty much like the hot topic in Taipei at the moment, the one-night stand," said Wei at Wednesday's press conference. "And I can assure you that it is a very funny play."

Yao Shu-fen (姚淑芬) from The Century of Contemporary Dance Company said it would be too hard to ask her dancers to dance on the shelves, so her show will focus on the concept of disaster instead.

Through five dancers, the dance talks about the different spaces that are associated with different memories and desire. It is called From Sight-Seeing to S.pace-moving (半成品).

Chen Amou (陳梅毛) from Taiwan Walker Theater does not intend to relate the stage settings of the bookstore with the play. His show is Taiwanese flavor -- Asshole Life (沒義氣又怕痛part2: 一人命一條).

In the play, men take off their clothes a little but most of the time they are cursing and giving low-taste gestures. It's an R rated show in terms of language.

Fu Hong-zheng (符宏征) from Off Performance Workshop found four writers to create eight segments in his play and imagines the stage as a morgue, a press conference venue, the seaside and a film set for martial arts movies. He blends the eight episodes together and has named his show Borderline (交界).

See details in listings.

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