The National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) planned an exciting 17-production line-up to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA), which was created to showcase the latest developments in contemporary performing arts around the world along with the best of Taiwanese artists and troupes.
It chose “To Inspire. For All.” — the future starts now” as the theme, the premise being that creating art poses intellectual challenges for both artists and audiences, which can propel them into the unknown and explore new possibilities.
Then the COVID-19 outbreak in China happened, and the resulting travel and entry restrictions imposed by many countries has led to the cancelation of some programs, as foreign troupes said they were having difficulty getting the necessary insurance to travel, or were worried about quarantine measures that might create problems for their tour schedules.
Photo courtesy of Kao Hsing-tsung
Potential audience members have also been worried about sitting in theaters, even with the precautions the National Performing Arts Center announced for its venues.
However, at present, the NTCH — and the National Taichung Theater, which has its own TIFA schedule starting next week — are going ahead with their festivals, albeit with almost weekly updates on changes and cancelations, with full refunds or exchanges offered for performances that have been dropped.
The latest update was announced on Wednesday: Germany-based Rimini Protokoll’s Nachlass — pieces sans personnes, which had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday next week at the National Experimental Theater and was already sold out.
Photo courtesy of National Theater Concert Hall
[Editor's note: The NTCH announced today that due to the spread of COVID-19, all Nachlass — pieces sans personnes performances have been canceled. Full refunds are available; for further information contact the NTCH box office.]
The company is still coming, but with just five members of its tech team instead of the seven planned, and the shows scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday have been canceled. The run has been extended until March 14.
The 90-minute work, which explores the zone between life and death, sees audience members moving through eight immersive spaces at eight-minute intervals as voices, images and objects tell the stories of eight people’s final farewells.
Photo courtesy of Charis Akrividiadis
While the absence of some of the foreign companies is a loss, there are still several locally produced shows that are worth looking forward to that will not be affected, unless the government decides to close public venues the way the Hong Kong government forced the cancelation of this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Among the highlights are A thousand stages, yet I have never quite lived (千年舞臺,我卻沒怎麼活過), created by director-screenwriter Ong Ken-sen (王景生), visual artist Chen Chieh- jen (陳界仁), photographer Chang Chao-tang (張照堂) and performed by Wei Hai- min (魏海敏) in the National Theater from April 10 to 12; Bulareyaung Pagarlava’s latest work for his Bulareyaung Dance Company (布拉瑞揚舞團), Not Afraid of the Sun and Rain (沒有害怕太陽和下雨) from April 17 to 19 at the National Theater; Moon River.2(月球水2.0), a coproduction by the Taipei Dance Forum (舞蹈空間) and the all-male Japanese dance company The Condors from April 24 to 26 in the National Theater; and the National Symphony Orchestra’s (國家交響樂團) LU & Kit (牧之神.森之靈) at the National Concert Hall on March 14.
Other traveling shows still in the works include Julien Gosselin’s Players, Mao II, The Names, a marathon nine-plus hours production on April 3 and 4 at the National Theater that is based on three Don DeLillo novels that examine terrorism. Ludovico Einaudi’s Seven Days Walking concert will be performed on April 18 at the National Concert Hall.
Photo courtesy of The Condors
Taichung’s portion of TIFA, with nine music, dance and theater productions, begins on Saturday next week with Michel van der Aa’s innovative opera Blank Out, based on the work and life of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, which utilizes interactive 3D film and electronic music to explore how memory and the way in which people reconstruct and deal with traumatic life events.
For those who missed the 2018 premiere in Taipei, the Very Mainstream Studio and Very Theatre’s coproduction Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei-Copenhagen (光年紀事:臺北─哥本哈根) will be performed from April 17 to 19, for which Taiwanese multimedia artist Chou Tung-yen (周東彥) used a 4D box hologram to create the setting for a story about two time travelers and their intimate memories light-years away.
For convenience, tickets for both the TIFA shows in Taipei and Taichung are listed on one page of the www.artsticket.com.tw Web site (www.artsticket.com.tw/CKSCC2005/product/product00/ProductsSearchPage.aspx?name=TIFA).
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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