The New Idea Theater Festival began last night at the National Theater of the CKS Memorial Hall with the first of three pieces by Taiwan's leading experimental theater troupes. Performances run tonight through June 5, in Chinese and Taiwanese.
Putting arguably the festival's best foot forward is one of Taiwan's more established experimental troupes, Golden Bough Theater (
It has given free reign to their players to script three vignettes that focus on friendship, love and death and the result is an evening of surprisingly mature and cohesive theater. This is experimental, and it works.
PHOTO: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
Stage veteran Wu Peng-feng (
Meetai, in his scene, gives a memorable performance as a Hindu devotee who encounters a god. His musical use of Hindi overcomes what might otherwise be a language barrier.
In the decade since it was founded, Golden Bough Theater has made a name for itself by performing everywhere from formal theaters to small-town night markets throughout Taiwan. Their style is marked by a fusion of modern theater elements with traditional Taiwanese opera.
Audiences who caught Golden Bough players performing My Dinner with Shakespeare last month will recognize the troupe's preferred modus operandi in All in One; a series of scenes with a joining theme that are both far out and grounded in reality.
The coming two weekends will see another two of Taiwan's experimental troupes tread the boards. Xitian Society Musical Workshop (
2:30pm matinee on Sunday. Portrait of Love has similar showings next Thursday, May 26 through May 29 and Who is Planning a Scheme will run June 3 to June 5 at 7:30pm, with matinees on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5 at 2:30. All performances are at the Experimental Theater of the National Theater (國家戲劇院實驗劇場), 21-1, Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei (台北市中山南路21-1號). Tickets for each performance are NT$400 or NT$960 for all three and available at the CKS Cultural Center or on the Web at www.artsticket.com.tw. For more information, call (02) 3393 9888.
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend