The good news for contemporary theater fans is that the National Theater Concert Hall has released a few more seats for its three sold-out shows of King Lear (李爾王), a joint production with the Festival d’Avignon that premiered in France last summer. The bad news is that the seats, in the back rows of the “VIP box” on the second floor, are priced at NT$4,500, which is NT$1,500 more than the original top-priced seats.
King Lear is an example of the National Theater facilitating international and local collaboration to create shows that are first performed abroad and then brought to Taipei, as opposed to its flagship productions such as 2008’s The Black Bearded Bible Man (黑鬚馬偕) and 2010’s 1433 — The Grand Voyage (鄭和1433) that failed to find a market outside of Taiwan.
King Lear, which opens next Friday as the third theater production in the Taiwan International Festival of Arts program, created controversy in France over Festival d’Avignon director Olivier Py’s translation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy into contemporary French and his 20th-century interpretation, which includes having Lear’s favorite daughter, Cordelia, played by a ballet dancer in a white tutu who tapes her mouth when asked to speak.
Photo courtesy of Anne Paceo
The show features the original cast, including Philippe Girard as Lear and Jean-Damien Barbin as the Fool.
The two-and-a-half-hour shows will be performed in French, with Chinese subtitles. There is no intermission and latecomers will not be admitted. The show also comes with warnings for partial nudity.
■ 7:30pm on March 18 and March 19 and at 2:30pm on March 20 at the National Theater (國家戲劇院), 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號)
■ As of press time, there are less than 20 seats each for the Friday and Sunday shows and less than 10 for Saturday. Tickets are available at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com.tw, at convenience store ticketing kiosks.
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