Testing the limits at CKS

The festival runs until mid-December with daily performances from Thursday to Sunday at the National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center Experimental Theater (國立中正文化中心) located at 21-1, 100 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei. (台北市100中山南路21-1號). All evening performances begin at 7:30pm and weekend matinees at 2:30pm. Tickets cost NT$450 and are available through the CKS box office or online at www.artsticket.com.

Upcoming Festival Performance notes:

What: Uhan Shii Theatre Group (歡喜扮戲團), My Invisible Friends

When: Nov. 18 to Nov. 21

Founded by Peng Ya-ling (彭雅玲) in 1995, Uhan Shii (which means happy in Taiwanese) takes Taiwan identity as the basis of its subject matter. Rather than create fictional material from historical accounts of the past, Peng employs elders to act out their personal experience on the stage. My Invisible Friends takes a critical look at Taiwanese opera using modern music and dance but told through the eyes of an elderly Taiwanese woman.

What: Riverbed Theatre (河床劇團), Life and Times of Robert Wilson

When: Dec. 2 to Dec. 5

Artistic director Craig Quintero launched his company in Chicago before relocating it to Taipei. Its imaged-based performances challenge audiences with non-linear plots to produce shows that are both visually and mentally stimulating. Life and Times of Robert Wilson takes a journey into the mind of the man who revolutionalized contemporary theater in the early 70s with his "Theater of Images."

What: Assignment Theatre (差事劇團), A Soldier's Pay

When: Dec. 9 to Dec. 12

Perhaps the most socially conscientious and politically savvy theater group, Assignment Theatre tends to focus its material on social issues in Taiwan. A Soldier's Pay questions the process of constructing a nation's written history. In the synopsis to the show, director Wang Mo-ling (王墨林) writes, "Without exception, national histories are myths constructed for the benefit of the nation, exaggerating the glories of murder and torture. Thus almost no one remembers to ask: Do I have the right to be unpatriotic?"