Theater
Those wanting a little comedy with their musical could do no better than to check out LAN Creators' (嵐創作體) production of the off-Broadway musical I Love You, You Are Perfect, Now Change. The show, with its snappy dialogue and contemporary themes and narrated sketches a la Seinfeld, follows a time line in the lives of several different characters spanning five decades. LAN Creators are attempting something relatively new in Taiwan by having a one-month run with two alternating casts.
▲ Crown Theater (皇冠藝文中心小劇場), B1, 50, Ln 120, Dunhua N Rd, Taipei (台北市敦化北路120巷50號B1)
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATER
▲ Every evening except Mondays at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm; until Nov. 30
▲ Tickets are NT$750 to NT$1,500, available through NTCH ticketing, Eslite Bookstore and Fnac, or online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Long-term Taipei residents often remember with fondness the exotic China Plaza (中華商場) before it was torn down in the 1980s. The market has now become part of the setting for Ping Fong Acting Troupe's (屏風表演班) play Apocalypse of Beijing Theater (京戲啟示錄). The work combines writer/director Hugh Lee's (李國修) childhood experiences with the market as a backdrop, his relationship with his father and the day-to-day reality of running a theater group. Li's father was a famous haberdasher for Beijing opera companies, which allowed the writer free reign to explore the operatic tradition throughout the 20th century.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TGHFF
▲ Chiayi Performing Arts Center (嘉義縣表演藝術中心) 265, Jianguo Rd Sec 2, Minhsiung Township, Chiayi County (民雄鄉建國路二段265號)
▲ Tomorrow at 7:30pm; Sunday at 2:30pm
▲ Tickets are NT$500 to NT$2,500 and are available through NTCH ticketing, Eslite Bookstores and Fnac, or online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Hayavadana is one of Girish Karnad's most popular plays. It will be performed by EX-Theater Asia (亞洲劇團) and directed by Chongtham Jayanta Meetei. With a text that begs experimentation, the plot and sub-plot intertwine to explore existential questions. The main narrative follows the story of Hayavadana, a horse-headed man whose quest for wholeness underscores the play's exploration of identity and reality.
▲ Miaoli County Cultural Center Performance Hall (苗栗縣文化局演藝廳), 50 Tzuchih Rd, Miaoli City (苗栗市自治路50號)
▲ Tonight and tomorrow at 7pm
▲ Tickets are NT$200 and are available through NTCH ticketing or online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Last week's performance of Happy Wonderland was canceled because of lackluster ticket sales. The show, a family-oriented production by one of the only black light theater troupes working and traveling throughout Taiwan, will take the stage in Ilan.
▲ Ilan Municipal Auditorium (宜蘭演藝廳), 482, Zhongshan Rd Sec 2, Ilan City (宜蘭市中山路二段482號)
▲ Tonight at 7:30pm
▲ Tickets are NT$200 to NT$500 and are available through NTCH ticket or online at www.artsticket.com.tw
暗殺Q3 … GO, Assasination, is a whodunit mystery complete with a detective who excels in criminal psychology and the methods of interrogation, an informant and murder witness. As this is a play in the tradition of experimental theater, expect the production to veer off from the detective story and comment about contemporary theatrical practices.
▲ Art Gallery at Eslite Bookstore Dunan branch (誠品敦南B2藝文空間), B2, 245, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei (台北市敦化南路一段 245號B2)
▲ Today and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
▲ Tickets are NT$400 and are available through NTCH ticket or online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Classical music
Lilya Zilberstein Piano Recital (齊柏思坦鋼琴獨奏會), will see the Russian pianist perform a program that includes Brahms' Drei Intermezzi Op. 117, Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Paganini and Rachmaninov's 13 Preludes Op. 32.
▲ Today 7:30pm in Taipei, tomorrow 7:30pm in Taichung
▲ National Concert Hall, Taipei and the Chungshan Hall, Taichung (台中中山堂), 98 Hsuehshih Rd, Taichung City (台中市學士路98號)
▲ Tickets are NT$350 to NT$2,000 and are available through ERA ticketing
Akiko Suwanai and the TSO (臺北市音樂季-秋夜美人名曲). The Japanese violinist will perform with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (臺北市立交響樂團) with Michael Sanderling conducting. She will play a program including Beethoven's Ouverture Prometheus, Op. 43, Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 and Bruckner's Symphony No.4 in E Flat Major "Romantic".
▲ Tomorrow 7:30pm
▲ National Concert Hall, Taipei
▲ Tickets are NT$200 to NT$1,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing
Variations Rococo (NSO 發現柴科夫斯基4 - 愛戀迷情) continues the National Symphony Orchestra's Tchaikovsky Cycle with performances of the Russian composer's Polonaise from Eugene Oregin and Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33, along with Rachmaninov's Symphony No.2 in E Minor, Op. 27with Julian Lloyd Webber as the soloist and Yip Wing-sie (葉詠詩) conducting.
▲ Sunday 2:30pm
▲ National Concert Hall, Taipei
▲ Tickets are NT$300 to NT$1,500 and are available through NTCH ticketing
2007 The Magic of DoReMe Series (魔法DoReMi?吉普賽狂熱) is a concert of classical music by young performers that all the family can enjoy. Sunday's concert is based on the theme of gypsy music, which inspired many of Western music's great composers. The concert includes works by Hayden and Brahms, among others.
▲ Sunday 10:30am
▲ National Recital Hall, Taipei
▲ Tickets are NT$300 and are available through NTCH ticketing
2007 NTSO International Music Festival Series VIII - Vincent David vs NTSOWE (2007 NTSO 國際音樂節系列VIII-撼動樂聲) will feature saxophonist Vincent David with guest conductor Leonard Hou (侯宇彪) directing the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble (國立臺灣交響樂團附設管樂團). The program includes Henri Tomasi's Saxophone Concerto, Jerome Naulais' Frissons, Robert Smith's Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual and James Newton Howard's highlights from the King Kong Soundtrack.
▲ Tomorrow at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm
▲ Tomorrow at the Fulfillment Amphitheater (台中市圓滿戶外劇場) at the intersection of Wenhsin and Hsiangshang roads in Taichung (台中市文心路與向上路交叉口) and Sunday at the NTSO Concert Hall at 738-2 Chungcheng Rd, Wufeng Township, Taichung County (台中縣霧峰鄉中正路738-2號)
▲ Entry to the performance at Fulfillment Theater is free; tickets for the Sunday performance are NT$200 to NT$500 and are available from NTCH ticketing or through the NTSO
Vincent David with TSB (來自法國的音樂魔法師) will see Vincent David perform with the Taipei Wind Orchestra and Symphonic Band (台北青年管樂團). The program will include Jerome Naulais' Frissons, Tomasi's Concerto, Fanfare Liturgoques, Milhaud's Suite Francaise and Jerry Bock's Symphonic Dance from Fiddler on the Roof.
▲ Thursday 7:30pm
▲ National Concert Hall, Taipei
▲ Tickets are NT$400 to NT$1,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing
Contemporary
Minimalist post-rock band To a God Unknown take to the stage tonight at Living Room (小客廳). The Boogie Chillin' Blues play tomorrow. Then on Wednesday it's acoustic/emo singer/guitarists To Neraew and Chris Huskey.
▲ Tonight and tomorrow's performances start at 10pm. Wednesday's starts at 9pm.
▲ There is an NT$300 minimum charge plus an NT$200 donation for To a God Unknown. For Boogie Chillin' the cost is NT$150 and NT$200. As of press time, prices have not been listed for Wednesday's show.
▲ 3F, 8, Nanjing E Rd Sec 5, Taipei (台北市南京東路5段8號3樓). Call (02) 8787-4154 or visit www.livingroomtaipei.com
Tonight at The Wall (這牆), it's pop/reggae singer Lisa Djaati. Acoustic indie-pop singer Waa takes to the stage tomorrow. Appearing on Sunday are glam metal band R'aie XIII, black-metal group Hades and melodic metal/hardcore band Neo Shark (腦剎). Screaming garage band Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢), Feng Lai Fang (風籟坊) and genre-bending alt-rock/electronica group The Shine & Shine & Shine & Shine play Wednesday. Indie-rock bands Radio Bear (小白熊電台) and Open Eyes (歐噴愛) perform Thursday.
▲ Entrance is NT400 tonight, NT$500 tomorrow, NT$300 Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday
▲ The music starts at 8pm
▲ B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Call (02) 2930-0162 or log on at www.the-wall.com.tw for more information
Underworld (地下社會) presents emo band The Hindsight (光景消逝) and Taichung punk band Damn Kidz tonight. Canadian turntablists and emcees Magnolius and Leo37 man the decks tomorrow for the first of two Taipei gigs. Their second is at Bliss later tomorrow night. Joining them is Hakka rapper Kou Chou Ching (拷秋勤). Tomo and Masa (兩神湯), in-your-face, all-girl electro-clash band Go Chic and alt-rock band Wiiky play Wednesday.
Bands start playing around 9pm. The bar is open from 8pm to 4am on weekdays, 8pm to and 5am on weekends, and is closed on Mondays
Entrance for shows is NT$300
B1, 45 Shida Rd, Taipei (台北市師大路45號B1). Call (02) 2369-0103 or visit www.upsaid.com/underworld for more information
Jazz combo Delta on the Mainstreet returns tonight to Riverside Cafe (河岸留言). Echo (回聲) jazz combo performs tomorrow. Black-metal band Shin (信樂團), a mid-chart fixture who finished second to Chthonic (閃靈樂團) in the best band category at the 2002 Golden Melody Awards, plays Sunday. Monday is open-jam night. Performing on Tuesday are Red Flower (紅花) and Your Low End (憂樂園). Phone Book 104 (查號104), Elesha (伊蕾莎) and Joker play Wednesday. Then on Thursday, it's singers Chuo Ting-chu (卓庭竹) and Debbie Hsiao (蕭賀碩).
▲ Shows start at 9:30pm
▲ Entrance tonight, tomorrow and Sunday is NT$400. Tuesday is NT$300. Wednesday and Thursday is NT$350. On Monday there is a one-drink minimum
▲ B1, 2, Ln 244, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路三段244巷2號B1). Call (02) 2368-7310, or visit www.riverside.com.tw
As part of a series of concerts by contemporary musicians, the Xue Xue Institute (學學文創志業) this week features shows by indie-rock bands Miss Silk Stockings (絲襪小姐) with acoustic guitarist and singer Huang Jie (黃玠) on Wednesday, and Bear Babes (熊寶貝) on Thursday.
▲ Wednesday and Thursday from 12:20pm to 3pm
▲ Tickets are NT$350
▲ 207, Tiding Blvd Sec 2, Neihu Dist, Taipei (台北市內湖區堤頂大道二段207號). Log on at www.xuexue.tw/events/pm/opening.html for information on these and upcoming performances and links to the online ticket vendor
Witch House (女巫店) features blues and jazz combo Afternoon Tree (午後之樹) tonight and Aboriginal neo-folk group Echo G.S. (艾可菊斯) tomorrow.
▲ Entrance is NT$300 and includes one drink
▲ Tonight and tomorrow at 9:30pm
▲ 7, Ln 56, Xinsheng S Road Sec 3, Taipei (台北市新生南路三段56巷7號). Call (02) 2362-5494 or visit
www.witchhouse.org
The O-Brothaz sound system hosts Thursday Reggae Oasis every Thursday night at club Plan B. The weekly event features Caribbean food, drinks and roots reggae.
▲ Entrance is free and all drinks are NT$150
▲ 9pm to 1am
▲ 29-1, Anhe Rd Sec 1, Taipei (台北市安和路一段29號之1). Call (02) 2775-5855 or visit www.obrothaz.com for more information
Tonight, at Groovecity in Taichung, it's folk/pop group Faye and the Slacks. Before that it's Salsa Night, a non-smoking event with professional instructors who teach salsa and merengue to the tune of Cuban music. Pan Africana Cultural Troupe performs tomorrow. At Grooveyard, there's a jam session on Sunday; Tuesday is variety night with stand-up comedy, live theater, music videos and movies; on Wednesday, which is ladies night, Russel Rogers plays Flamenco guitar and Bazouki; and Thursday is acoustic jam and open-mic night.
▲ Tonight's salsa runs from 8pm to 10pm, followed by the live music at 10pm. Tomorrow's show starts at 10pm. Sunday's jam is from 7pm to 11pm. Russel Rogers plays from 10pm to midnight. Thursday's open mic starts at 9pm
▲ Cover for the bands is NT$200 tonight and NT$300 tomorrow. There's no cover Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
▲ Groovecity is inside Tiger City (台中老虎城旁停車場) at 120, Henan Rd Sec 3, Taichung (台中市河南路三段120號老虎城). Grooveyard is located at 2F, 105 Huamei W Rd, Taichung (台中市華美西街105號2樓). Visit www.grooveyardtaiwan.com or call 0939-574-737 for more information
Exhibition
New Visions at the Ching Court: Giuseppe Castiglione and Western-Style Trends (新視界 - 郎世寧與清宮西洋風). Serving at the imperial court for more than 50 years as an artist, Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione devoted himself to adapting Western painting techniques to Chinese styles, subjects and materials and helped form a style that seamlessly combined the techniques of Western realism with the Oriental aesthetics.
▲ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei (台北市至善路二段221號). Call (02) 2881-2021.
▲ Open Monday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm; Saturday open till 8:30pm
▲ Until Dec. 15
The Line by Jen Ta-hsien (放設線by任大賢). Jen attempts to create a sense of limbo between the real museum building and a virtual space by mimicking the museum's red brick walls with industrial steel rods covered in florescent paint.
▲ Museum of Contemporary Art (台北當代藝術館), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei (台北市長安西路39號) Call (02) 2552-3721
▲ Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm
▲ Until Dec. 16
Chen Chien-jung Solo Exhibition (2007陳建榮個展). In his latest series of multi-media paintings, Chen attempts to create an ideal architectural space where visitors are caught between the imagined and the real amid objects and spaces of uncertain and ambiguous attributes.
▲ VT Art Salon, B1, 47, Yitong St, Taipei (台北市伊通街47號B1). Call (02) 2516-1060
▲ Open Tuesday to Thursday from 2pm to 12am; Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 2am
▲ Until Dec. 8
Upcoming I
The revival of the classic Nine Songs, created by Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) to mark Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's (雲門舞集) 20th anniversary in 1993, is certainly something to celebrate. Taking inspiration from a 2,000-year-old poem by Qu Yuan (屈原) and more recent political history, including the 228 Incident and the Tiananmen Massacre, Lee created an evocative work that takes audiences on a two-hour journey through life, rebirth and redemption. The breathtaking Homage to the God of the Clouds segment will remain in your mind long after the show is over. And if the dancing was not enough, there is also luscious set created by famed American stage designer Ming Cho Lee, including a lotus pond.
▲ Friday, Nov. 23 to Sunday, Dec. 2 at the National Theater; evening performances at 7:45pm, Sunday matinees at 2:45pm
▲ Tickets for both Taipei weekends are sold out. Tickets are still available for Nov. 26 to Nov. 29 performances, ranging from NT$400 (students) to NT$1,200, although the top orchestra seats are all gone
▲ Elsewhere: Dec. 7-8 at Taichung Chungshan Hall (the Saturday, Dec. 8 show is sold out); Dec. 14-15 in Tainan Performance Hall; Dec. 21-22 in Kaohsiung Chih-Der Hall and Dec. 28-29 in Chiayi Performing Arts Center
▲ Tickets for performances outside Taipei range from NT$300 to NT$1,500 and are available online at www.tickets.com.tw or at the National Theater box office
Upcoming II
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展) will screen more than 200 feature, documentary, short, animation and experimental films from around the world in Taipei. Selections include award-winning works from this year's Cannes, Venice and Berlin film festivals as well as films nominated for the festival's International Digital Shorts Competition.
Highlights feature the latest works by Jacques Rivette, Bela Tarr, Aleksandr Sokurov and Claude Chabrol, films from South Asian countries and theme-orientated sections including Music No Limits, Midnight Fever, Celluloid Legends and Rites of Passage.
▲ The film festival will run from Nov. 23 through Dec. 8 at Vie Show Cinema, Xinyi (信義威秀影城), In89 Digital Cinema (In89豪華數位影院) and Vie Show Cinema, Sun (日新威秀影城) in Xinmending
▲ Festival tickets cost NT$2,600 for 14 screenings, available at the Xinyi (信義), Dunan (敦南), Taipei National University (台大) and Ximen (西門) branches of Eslite Bookstore.
Individual ticket sales begin tomorrow and cost NT$230 per screening (NT$200 for students), available through tickets.books.com.tw
For more information, visit
www.goldenhorse.org.tw
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and