The Pheonix Theater, an expat English-language theater group based in Taipei, debuted their latest work, Conor McPherson's The Weir in Peshawar, a bar on Shida Road, last week. The group will perform again at Peshawar tonight and at tomorrow at Bliss on Xinyi Road.
"We wanted to do things in our language for us because there's nothing out there. There's no language place. Most of the people don't speak Chinese. You need to do something for yourself," said Catherine Diamond, 55, the director of Phoenix Theater, who teaches drama at Soochow University in Taipei.
Pheonix Theater does not have any permanent members other than Diamond herself. Despite the challenges this poses for Diamond as a director, she told the Taipei Times that this meets the spirit of the troupe's name "phoenix," a symbol of constant rebirth.
While the cast is all new to the Pheonix Theater, most have acted either in other expat theater groups in Taiwan, or have some theater experience from back home.
David Beattie directed Opposites Attract, which played at The Living Room in 2004. David Antoniuk writes poetry, plays and essays, and is making his debut as an actor in The Weir. Rowan Hunter is a veteran actor and director in Taipei having appeared in Withnail and I (2004), The Maltese Falcon (2003), and Entertaining Mr. Sloane (2001). Christienne Woods graduated from the Theater Department of California State University of Sacramento.
Given the cast's experience, director Diamond refused to describe the cast as "amateur performers," especially in Taiwan. "There are no professional theater actors in Taiwan ? . By local standards, I think we are rather professional."
Having found her cast, Diamond had then to find a venue, not an easy task as many establishments were more interested in screening World Cup matches.
"I've been doing theater all my life. It's a place where imagination can work. ... Unlike some English-language troupes, the Pheonix Theater is not about having fun together, joking around, not caring about the standard; we are really serious about our standards," said Diamond.
The Weir is McPherson's breakthrough Broadway hit, winner of two 1998 Olivier Awards including Best New Play, it debuted to rapturous reviews in 1997 at London's Royal Court Theatre.
The play is based on the stories McPherson heard his grandfather tell him and revolves around three men and a woman who gather in a pub and swap ghost stories. In the process, they reveal their deep-seated superstitions.
The play with five characters is made up of 90 minutes of monologues. The short distance between the audience and actors makes the audience feel like part of the play.
Most of the cast currently teach English in Taiwan. For them, the play is something they do for fun, despite what Diamond says. Working a full-time job and rehersing for the play took it's toll on the actors' social lives, said Bowring, who plays the main character Jack.
Rowan Hunter, who plays the character Finbar, said the hard work has paid off: "Out there, that's just about making money. That's not doing something. ... This [acting] is what I really want to do."
Though Diamond admitted that it would be better if the Pheonix Theater could build a core of performers, she said this was not something that could be easily achieved. "Most people eventually leave Taipei," she said, adding that this drain of talent was a common problem with all expat theater groups.
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