As part of the local content of the Taiwan International Festival of Arts (台灣國際藝術節), the National Guoguang Opera Company (國立(國光劇團) has pulled out all the stops to produce an operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra and Her Fools (艷后和她的小丑們) does not fall into any clearly defined category, and spans the spectrum from traditional Beijing opera to contemporary musical styles. Despite the enormous artistic risks being taken by this production, the big names associated with the project, including opera diva Wei Hai-min (魏海敏) in the starring role and a script by Chi Wei-jan (紀蔚然), a former dean of drama and theater at the National Taiwan University and a major figure in the world of experimental theater, mean that tickets have been selling briskly. The production will have English subtitles, making this bold new show accessible to an international audience.
■ Cleopatra and Her Fools (艷后和她的小丑們) is at the National Theater, Taipei City
■ Tickets for the opening night on March 30 are already sold out, but some seats remain for the two performances on March 31 (2:30pm and 7:30pm) and for the closing performance on April 1 (2:30pm)
Photo courtesy of National Guoguang Opera Company
■ Tickets are NT$400 to NT$2,500, available through NTCH ticketing and online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s