Theater
Light and Shadow's Journey — Sun Wukong vs. Spider Monster is the result of a three-year collaboration between shadow play master Larry Reed and The Puppet and Its Double Theater (無獨有偶工作室劇團). Combining Western and Eastern theater styles, the work blends real actors and puppets, creating movie-like special effects such as floating clouds, natural scenery and intricate buildings.
* National Taiwan Arts Education Institute (國立台灣藝術教育館), 47 Nanhai Rd, Taipei (台北市南海路47號)
* Today and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
* Tickets are NT$300 to NT$1,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing
Forever Tango is an evening of tango music and dance that recalls the early home of tango in the brothels of Buenos Aires, where women dressed in sexy attire and men were suited in gangster mode.
* National Theater (國家戲劇院), Taipei and Kaohsiung Cultural Center's Chih-teh Hall (高雄市立文化中心至德堂), 67 Wufu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市五福一路67號)
* Taipei performances are today tomorrow, and Sunday at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm; Kaohsiung performances are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm
* Tickets for Taipei performances are NT$500 to NT$4,200; Kaohsiung performances are NT$500 to NT$3,000. All tickets are available through NTCH ticketing
Those Men in Her Life (人間條件二 — 她與她生命中男人們). Green Ray Theater Company (綠光劇團) uses the 228 Incident as the backdrop to tell the story of two women who hide three fugitives on the run from the authorities. Written and directed by Wu Nien-jen (吳念真), the performance spans 50 years of Taiwan's history and investigates what it means to be Taiwanese by raising questions about identity, values and culture.
Dionysus is the second of two plays written by Japanese director, theorist and ideologue, Tadashi Suzuki, and is adapted from Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy Bacchae. Known for adapting western classical — especially Greek — plays into Japanese, Suzuki uses the plots of the ancient works to ask questions about contemporary society. In this play, Suzuki uses the character Pentheus to show how the individual can become the victim of religion and the state when priests under the sway of Dionysus encircle Pentheus and kill him. The work sets out to reveal how one cult replaces another, one administration replaces another, and how both contribute to undermining the individual in society. The play features Suzuki's trademark fusing of Japanese Noh and Kabuki theater styles with the Western theatrical tradition.
* National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳), Taipei
* March 23 to March 25
* Tickets are NT$400 to NT$2,500 through NTCH ticketing
* Metropolitan Hall (城市舞台), 25 Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市八德路3段25號)
* Today and tomorrow at 7:30pm; tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
* Tickets are NT$500 to NT$1,800 and are available through ERA ticketing
Classical
A Night of the Beauty of Strings — Tainan Soloists Concert Debut (弦美之夜 — 台南獨奏家創團音樂會). The group is set to make a series of three debut concerts in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taipei beginning tonight featuring guest violinist Su Shien-ta (蘇顯達), a France-based Taiwanese violinist. The newly founded group is composed of Tainan-based elite string instrumentalists, and its founding goal is to promote the appreciation of string music in Taiwan. The program will include Teddy Bor's Mcmozart's Eine Kleine Bricht Moonlicht Nicht Musik and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in D Minor for Solo Violin and String Orchestra and Octet for strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20.
* Tonight at the Chih-shan Hall, National CKS Cultural Center, Kaohsiung City (高雄中正文化中心至善廳), 67 Wufu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市五福一路67號), tomorrow at National Tainan University Recital Hall (台南大學雅音樓), 33 Shulin St Sec 2, Tainan City (台南市樹林街二段33號) and Sunday at the National Recital Hall, Taipei
* Tickets cost from NT$200 to NT$300 and are available through ERA ticketing
* Tonight at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
Qian Zhou Violin Recital (錢舟小提琴獨奏會). In 1987, 18-year-old Qian introduced herself to the world of music with a brilliant triumph at the Marguerite Long/Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris, one of the four major international events of the kind. She broke the records of all the precedents in the competition's fifty-year history by winning not only the First Grand Prize, but also the Best Mozart, the Recital, and the Virtuoso Prizes, as well as the International Artist and Audience Prizes. She was the youngest Long/Thibaud winner ever, and her victory drew worldwide attention. Joined by pianist Albert Tiu, a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Qian will present Leclair's Violin Sonata in D Major, Op.9, No.3, Brahms' Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op.100, Kreisler's transcription of Falla's Spanish Dance, Glazunov's Meditation, Tchaikovsky's Serenade Melancolique, Op.26, Drigo's Valse Blunette, Wieniawski's Capriccio-Valse, Op.7, and Chen Gan's (陳鋼) Sunshine Over Tashkugan (陽光照耀著塔什庫爾干). During a tour of Taiwan, Qian and Tiu will also give master classes. For more information, visit the website at www.newartinc.com or call (02) 8773-2898.
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