If the Christmas and New Year's parties have left you looking for some low-key entertainment for this weekend, the Gu Ling Experimental Theatre Festival may provide the right hangover remedy. The festival, which began at the end of November, presents its last three performances by groups from Hong Kong, the US and Japan.
Before appreciating the performances, the festival venue -- Gu Ling Street Experimental Theater -- is worth a visit in itself. Gu-ling Street is filled with nostalgic atmosphere and is best known as the place to go to find old and rare books in Taipei.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HITOMI'S DEAF PUPPET THEATER
The theater's building dates from 1906, when it housed a police station until the early 1990s. In 2001, through the effort of local activists, the once deserted old police station was renovated and named Gu Ling Street Experimental Theater. The Japanese-style detention room was preserved for viewing and is occasionally used to display installation art.
Similar to SPOT Taipei Film House, the historical building, with its bookstore, audio-visual room and cafe, has become a popular hangout for Taipei's arts community.
Tonight at the festival is Hong Kong artist Feng Cheng-Cheng's (馮程程) Solo of a Solitary Acrobat (寂寞的自由體操). This solo show mixes acrobatic performances and elements of a magic show. The story is roughly based on American author Gertrude Stein's children's book The World Is Round, but also incorporates the true story of Yelena Mukhina, a Russian free-style acrobat famous in the 1970s. According to Feng, the play is about walking and searching.
Next Saturday, US-based artist Marilyn Arsem will present two short pieces, Dreams (breathe/don't breathe) of Home and The Beginning or the End. The first play is rich with ceremonial body movements, creating images that swing between humor and fright, and bring an unsettling atmosphere. In the second play she uses an odd mix of props, including fish, bread, and bones, to create a peculiar lullaby.
The last group performing at the festival is the Japanese group Hitomi's Deaf Puppet Theater, who will present their play on Jan. 16. This theater group is composed of hearing-challenged and hearing actors, as well as puppet performers. The performance mixes Japanese sign language, puppet and body expression to tell an endearing Japanese folktale about a magical raccoon that is saved by a lonely granny living in the mountains and tries to fulfill the old lady's last wishes.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not