It's the kind of thing you might expect to see happen in the basement of the city's most popular bookstore. This weekend marks the start of the Author's Record of Events, a series of three plays about three different writers, in the basement of the Dunhua South Road Eslite Bookstore. Be prepared for some heady theater.
The first of the plays, which opened last night and runs through Sunday, is a reflection on the life and work of Walter Benjamin, the German essayist and critic known for having synthesized Marxist theory and Jewish messianism. Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, is by far the most read of his essays. He's also famous for his participation in progressive psychopharmacological research and having committed suicide while trying to flee the Nazi's in war-torn Europe.
What any of Benjamin's scholarly writings have to do with this weekend's play will be anyone's guess until the curtain goes up. Titled The Arena of Love is Just Like a Market (
PHOTO COURTESY OF ESLITE
follows its protagonist as he attempts to sleep with 100 people he's never met. He doesn't want to know anything about them, much like the city in which he lives. In his mind, you see, meeting people is a lot like shopping.
"Sometimes we go shopping without knowing what we're looking for," said Hong Kong director Lin Yi-hua (
Next weekend's production is decidedly less sexy, but still just as heady. Directed by Wu Xiao-fen (
imprisoned during the tumultuous period following the 228 Incident. Yang had written a 700-word
article -- a "declaration of peace" -- that offended the authoritarian KMT regime. For his 700 words, he spent 12 years in prison on Green Island.
Wu wrote the script with Pan Guan-hong (
Finally, the series ends with a look at Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa, an agronomist,
amateur geologist and intellectual dilettante, having dabbled with learning Esperanto and tried his hand at musical composition.
He was born in 1896 and the play, titled simply Kenji, looks at his life in Japan, stricken with tuberculosis. It follows his childhood spent with his sister -- the director, Lee Huan-hsiung (
Performance notes:
● The Arena of Love is Just Like a Market
Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm, tomorrow and Sunday evenings at 2:30pm.
● Moonlight Rose
Thursday Oct. 20 to Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:30pm, matinee performances at 2:30pm on Saturday, Oct. 22 and Sunday, Oct. 23.
● Kenji
Thursday, Oct. 27 to Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:30pm, matinee performances at 2:30pm on Saturday Oct. 29 and Sunday, Oct. 30.
Place and ticket:
All performances are in the basement of Eslite Bookstore, located at B2, 100, Dunhua S Rd, in Taipei (
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