It was an interesting quirk that both shows seen over the weekend, U-Theatre’s (優人神鼓) Beyond Time (時間之外) and Horse’s (驫舞劇場) Successor, began with the sound of rain and/or a thunderstorm, given how wet Taipei was most of the week. Sitting in the National Theater as Beyond Time (時間之外) began on Saturday night, the sound of rain was so loud and convincing that it seemed hard to believe we weren’t being plastered with raindrops.
The production was probably the most metaphysical of the Zen drumming group’s that I have seen and it was a visual delight, with the staging and light designs of famed designer Lin Keh-hua (林克華). The illuminations of a starry void where meteor drops turn into swirls and curls of light were stunning.
The troupe was in fine form, and while the performance featured the company’s iconic drumming and martial arts-inspired movements, as well as Gurdjieff-based sacred dance, there was also chanting, plus Tibetan throat singing by guest artist Wang Cheng (王城). Later Wang was joined in vocalizations by company founder and director Liu Ruo-yu (劉若瑀).
Photo courtesy of U-Theatre
The music and choreography was by the company’s drumming master, Huang Chih-chun (黃誌群), who was also the featured performer. Huang is mesmerizing to watch because of his concentration and absolute commitment to every movement. As my theater-going companion said, what is fascinating about U-Theatre is the oscillation between stillness and frenetic movement.
The only complaint, and this comes from a big fan of the troupe, was there wasn’t enough drumming in this production.
However, I took great delight in seeing A-gan (阿甘) on stage with the troupe. It was only in October last year that he was paroled from Changhua Prison (彰化監獄), where he had been incarcerated for several years as a young offender, and where he had become a member of the Guwu Percussion Troupe (鼓舞打擊樂團) founded by U-Theatre. The program was begun by Liu and Huang in 2009, with Liu’s commitment that any of its members could join U-Theater upon their release (“Beating their way to new lives,” June 16, 2011, page 13).
The company will take Beyond Time on the road next month, beginning Dec. 10 at Chiayi Performing Arts Center, followed by performances in Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
Meanwhile, over in Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914) on Friday night, Horse’s second-stage of their three-weekend long performance and sound-installation experiment was a complete success. If stage one the previous weekend was about breaking down the barrier between audience and performer, this weekend it was the barriers that usually divide an audience that were broken.
Everyone paid the same price (NT$600), but there were no “good” seats: Everyone sat on a stack of newspapers — with a piece of brown paper on the top to prevent ink transfers — that were spread out throughout most of the huge hall in curving rows, but given the support pillars in the hall, and the movements of the dancers, at some point everyone had to turn/twist their body or stretch their necks to see what was going on at the other end of the hall — or stand up. Most of the show was made up of solos and duets, with the occasional trio.
While the nine dancers are all good, Shai Tamir had the meatiest role, since the “cave” that the other dancers were exploring was supposedly his. Set design was once again by Tsai Wan-shuen (蔡宛璇), whose sculptures and structures last weekend and this weekend ranged from the very simple to the amazingly complicated. The soundscape created and performed by Volume-Collectif was equally impressive.
Perhaps because the soundscape mixed the industrial with the sounds of water and waves, the imagery of the show was evocative of a modern version of the Flying Dutchman, with the dancers as the crew that are trapped together, endlessly sailing the seas — or a rundown version of the starship Enterprise on an endless voyage, knowing they can never reach home.
There is one more weekend of Successor, albeit a completely different show, as well as the daytime sound installation. Both start on Thursday.
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