In every country that has ever had a puppetry tradition, puppeteers have carried their puppets around in a box. It is from this box, which holds the tools of their trade, the instruments of their art, their means of expression and their source of subsistence, that La Boite (The Box), a collaboration between Taiwan’s Taiyuan Puppet Theater Company (台原偶戲團) and the Compagnie des Zonzons, takes its name. Having premiered in Lyon, France, Zonzons’ hometown, in April, the show has its first Taiwan performance at Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall (台北市中山堂) this weekend.
“It is a much bigger performance than we’ve ever put on,” said Wu Shan-shan (伍姍姍), manager of the Taiyuan Puppet Theater Company, of a show that brings together both French and Taiwanese puppets and puppeteers. “Given that we are two troupes, we have double the resources of money and talent. It also required double the courage ... This production has taken Taiyuan to the next level.”
La Boite tells the story of two puppet troupes who mistakenly take the puppet box of the other troupe and then try to find ways of performing using the unfamiliar puppets. The puppets themselves are endowed with life and long to return to their rightful masters. Both the European and Taiwanese puppets used are very traditional, though the presentation is anything but. Wu emphasized that the troupes’ aim was to explore and give new dimensions to a shared aspiration to create a modern puppet theater grounded in tradition, one that is able to draw on a rich cultural heritage without being constrained by it.
The ability to perform at a venue the size of Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall is largely due to the highly innovative use of a multifunctional box designed by Robin Ruizendaal, director of the Lin Liu-hsin Puppet Theater Museum (林柳新紀念偶戲博物館) and artistic director of Taiyuan. The device, which stands more than 4m high and serves as a multilevel puppet stage, is also a prop for human actors and a screen against which images can be projected or through which shadow puppets can enter into the action. The contraption also rotates and can open to reveal its internal workings.
“Puppet theater in Taiwan tends to appeal only to the very old and the very young. It does not register with the general theater-going public. We were looking for ways so that actors, puppets and music can occupy the stage together,” said Wu, who has extensive experience pushing the boundaries of puppet theater with Taiyuan, most recently in the highly successful production of The Second Goodbye last November at the Experimental Theater in Taipei. Performing at the Zhongshan Hall, which has seating for 600, imposed significant challenges on Taiyuan and forced the company to develop new techniques to meet the demands of the larger space. Success will depend very much on what they can pull out of their bag, or box, of tricks.
“A production such as La Boite gives us a chance to show off some very traditional performances, both of European and Taiwanese puppetry, as part of a bigger and more diverse show. It is not like trying to watch the whole Three Kingdoms saga,” Wu said, referring to the interminable tale that forms part of the Taiwanese repertoire, “but you get to see some really outstanding segments.” This technique of repackaging material previously regarded as inaccessible or unpalatable has a proven track record, an early example being Milos Forman’s Amadeus (1984), which turned many people on to classical music who would never have thought of sitting through Mozart’s Requiem in its entirety.
Wu said some aspects of the production directly reflect the experience Zonzons and Taiyuan had during the many months of cooperation in design and rehearsal. The show is, after all, two puppet companies making a show about two puppet companies that meet through their puppets. “Two companies meet, they develop feelings for each other, and these feelings are reflected in their performance ... their individual traditions are given clearer expression through their relationship,” said Wu, talking both of the story of La Boite and her experience working with Zonzons.
With La Boite, Taiyuan hopes to pull a new lease of life for Taiwan puppetry out of the box, and much will depend on whether the cachet provided by the participation of Zonzons will draw Taiwanese audiences, who are notoriously shy of performances that smack too much of narrowly localized culture.
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