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Red-letter day for Ping-Fong

Ping-Fong Acting Troupe has revived Far Away from Home with considerable revisions, a line-up of well-known songstresses and its most sumptuous set to date. PHOTO COURTESY OF PING-FONG ACTING TROUPE

The Ping-Fong Acting Troupe (屏風表演班) is not afraid of reruns. This is because people keep coming back for more. Far Away from Home (西出陽關) premiered in 1989, was revived in 1994 and is now back with a lavish new production at the National Theater Taipei opening tonight, until Oct. 17.

As is usual with Ping-Fong, the production will also be touring the island, with performances in Tainan (Nov. 12), Hsinchu (Nov. 20 to Nov. 21), Kaohsiung (Nov. 26 to Nov. 27) and Taichung (Dec. 11 to Dec. 12).

Hugh Lee (李國修), the troupe's artistic director, has probably done more than any other theater performance artist to bring the social history of Taiwan to the stage. Plays such as Beijing Opera: The Revelation (京劇啟示錄) have already established themselves as classics of contemporary Taiwanese theater. More recent works such as Wedding Memories (女兒紅) are likely to join this gradually expanding corpus.

Far Away from Home takes as its setting the Red Envelope Clubs of Taipei' s Ximending district, where singers served as entertainers, mothers and lovers to old soldiers who wanted to hear the songs of their homeland. It focuses on the lives of three old soldiers and their relationships with these women.

Few such clubs remain and their nature is changing, but Ping-Fong seeks to recapture the glory and the tragedy that characterized these clubs in their heyday.

It does this with its usual verve, laying on the sentimentality with a trowel. Wedding Memories, which also took as its theme the relocation of Mainlanders to Taiwan, had many of the audience in tears for most of the second half, and this new production of Far Away From Home is likely to be similarly affecting.

This somewhat facile sentimentality is one of the criticisms leveled at such Ping-Fong productions by its critics, but there are few who doubt the sincerity of its vision and Lee's commitment to expressing deeply felt emotions, so that productions such as these never come across as overtly manipulative or glib.

One of the great draws of this show is the music, and Ping-Fong has staged a considerable coup in bringing to the stage singers such as Man Fong (萬芳), Hsiu Chin (琇琴), Shih Pi-yu (施璧玉), Liu Shan-shan (劉珊珊) and Yen Chia-le ( 顏嘉樂), whose own songs can be found in the repertoire of Red Envelope Clubs today.

While shows like Beijing Opera: Revelation are based on Lee's own memories, Far Away from Home goes back one generation to that of his father. "It is based on all the stories I have heard from people of that generation," Lee said.

There have been considerable changes to the play since it was last staged 10 years ago, which can be attributed to Lee's growing maturity as a dramatist and actor. Although it is a reworking of an established piece, Lee said that it is probably his most mature work to date.

Ping-Fong has always had a weakness for spectacle, and the hoo-hah over its re-creation of the Northern Lights in The Aurora Borealis (2002) is being matched by a full-blown rain scene in this production of Far Away from Home. The technical challenge was considerable and it is probably a good thing that theater technology is being pushed to new limits.

Lee said the company spent a total of NT$1.5 million on the stage setting alone, the largest sum for a Ping-Fong production.

At least Ping-Fong is not shy about admitting that it aims to entertain, and with its big stage, flamboyant sentimentality and its links with Taiwan's history is already proving irresistible to Taiwanese audiences. Tickets are selling well, so get your tickets quickly for the weekend performance.

Performance notes:
What: Far Away from Home
Who: Ping-Fong Acting Troupe
When: Tonight until Oct. 17, 7;30pm (2:30pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday)
Where: National Theater, Taipei
Tickets: NT$500 to NT$1,800, tickets through www.artsticket.com.tw or from FNAC, Senseio and Eslite bookstores.
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