The rehearsal space for National Taiwan University’s theater department could serve as a metaphor for the difficulties facing Taiwan’s performance art scene — at least at the university level.
There are frighteningly large cracks in the walls, some shoddily cemented over. The equipment appears to be decades old and there is no permanent seating. It is the kind of rehearsal space that raises more problems than it solves. And this is at Taiwan’s top institution of learning. And yet, these obstacles pale in comparison to other problems that needed to be overcome to stage Mulan (木蘭少女), a musical that opens tonight at Taipei City’s Metropolitan Hall (城市舞台).
“Most of our theater students — even graduate students — don’t have vocal and physical training,” said Lu Po-shen (呂柏伸), the production’s director and founder of Tainaner Ensemble (台南人劇團). The solution, he said, was to hold early auditions (they took place last summer) and employ industry professionals to hone the actors singing and dancing skills.
It is a formula that seems to have paid off. At a run through earlier this week, the many dance numbers were well executed and the songs evoked the necessary saccharine emotions.
The musical has 25 actors on stage, with a 23-member live orchestra performing 18 original songs written specifically for the production. The script, written by Tsai Po-chang (蔡柏璋) of K-24 fame, is based on a Chinese morality tale called Hua Mulan (花木蘭), which dates back to before the Tang Dynasty.
As with the original Mulan, the musical tells the story of a woman named Hua Mulan who joins an all-male army. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end. In the original work, Mulan wants to prove her mettle and establish her family’s reputation by fighting for her country — a contrast with the musical’s heroine, who loafs around the house all day and only gets off the couch to go shopping.
Through a series of events, however, Mulan’s parents force her to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the army. The conceit works: a heterosexual childhood friend, who joins the army at the same time and fails to see through the disguise, falls in love with her anyway. So too does a gay general. The love triangle that results involves Mulan humorously attempting to keep her identity hidden, while trying to decide which suitor to choose.
In the performance, the rituals and customs of the traditional Taiwanese family and village, as well as life in the barracks, are lampooned to great effect.
Taken together, the musical investigates in a humorous and light-hearted manner the issue of gender identity, raising the question of whether it is learned or innate. It also reveals that, although funding for amateur performance art in Taiwan is somewhat limited, the nation’s up-and-coming artists still have much to offer audiences.
Mulan (木蘭少女) runs at Metropolitan Hall (城市舞台), 25, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段25號) today and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. Tickets cost from NT$400 to NT$1,500 and are available through NTCH ticketing.— Noah Buchan
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