Before heading to Japan’s Festival/Tokyo in November, Against Again Troupe gave a debut performance of its new work Eventually Withering Away Little by Little last week. The play experiments with the possibilities of a theater without people. The new work, being performed in celebration of the troupe’s 10th anniversary, will also be performed at this year’s Macau City Fringe Festival.
Combining various theatrical art forms, including object theater, installation art, sound art and behavior art, the play forms a theater without actors. The production will be put on by Against Again Theater’s five artists, including Joyce Ho, who won a special award at the KOBE Biennale, theater musician and director Chiang Tao, producer Lin Jen-chung, and artists Kappa Tseng and Wang Shih-chi. The five of them use their own individual performance methods to outline evidence that is supposed to prove the existence of a woman who is never actually present on the stage. The play creates limitless possibilities for its stream-of-consciousness narrative, paying tribute to one of the most important female writers of the 20th century — Virginia Woolf.
A theater of actors that does not actually use people was the brainchild of Against Again Troupe director, Huang Sze-nung. He says that the absence of others is something that every individual must experience in life, “Maybe people leave, perhaps they die, or maybe they are there the whole time but just not seen.”
Photo Courtesy of Against Again Troupe
照片:照片由再拒劇團提供
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
十一月前往東京藝術節前夕,再拒劇團上週演出《接下來,是一些些消亡》的台灣首演,實驗無人劇場的可能性。該作品也將受邀澳門藝穗節演出,這也是今年成立十年的再拒劇團代表作。
結合了物件劇場、裝置藝術、聲音藝術、行為藝術等多樣戲劇型態,就是不能有「演員」,再拒劇團邀約五位藝術家包括獲得日本神戶雙年展評審特別賞的何采柔,劇場音樂雙棲鬼才導演蔣韜,製作人林人中,藝術家曾彥婷以及藝術家王詩琪。五人分別以自己的表現手法,勾勒出「不在場」的女子存在的證據,嘗試「意識流」劇場的無限可能,也同時向二十世紀最重要的女性小說家吳爾芙致敬。
Photo Courtesy of Against Again Troupe
照片由再拒劇團提供
這場無人演員的劇展由再拒劇團團長黃思農策劃,他表示,事實上,各種各樣他者的缺席,是每個人的生命所經歷的必然過程,「也許對方離開,也許死亡,也許一直都在,卻不被看見。」
(自由時報記者趙靜瑜)
Photo Courtesy of Against Again Troupe
照片由再拒劇團提供
Have you ever gazed at the night sky and felt as though the Moon loomed larger than usual? Your eyes were not deceiving you. The Moon’s apparent size can __1__ subtly depending on where it is in its orbit. On certain occasions, it reaches its fullest phase while at its closest point to Earth. When these two events __2__, scientists and the public refer to the spectacle as a “supermoon.” The Moon does not orbit our planet in a perfect circle. Instead, it travels along a more oval-shaped __3__, completing one full orbit every 27 days. Consequently, there are times when
A: South Korea’s Golden Disc Awards ceremony is taking place at the Taipei Dome on Saturday. Eighteen acts are taking to the stage, including Blackpink’s Jennie. B: The hottest boy group CORTIS is also performing. I can’t wait to see James, the Taiwanese member of the band, perform. A: Who else are playing at the K-pop show? B: This year’s lineup is stacked, including: Allday Project, ARrC, Ateez, Boynextdoor, Close Your Eyes, Enhypen, IVE, Izna, KiiiKiii, Le Sserafim, Monsta X, NCT Wish, Stray Kids, TWS, Zerobaseone and Zozazz. A: SKZ, Enhypen and Ateez dominated Billboard’s 2025 Year-End World
A: Aside from K-pop, what were the English chart-toppers? B: Billboard’s top three singles for 2025 were “Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars, “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar/SZA and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. Plus, pop diva Mariah Carey’s 1994 megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” won its 20th and 21st weeks at No. 1, becoming the longest-running No. 1 song in history. A: How about in Taiwan? The news says nine of the 10 most-streamed songs on Spotify Taiwan were Korean. B: Yup, and the top three were: “Winter Ahead” by BTS’ V and Park
US President Donald Trump has renewed his ambition to take control of Greenland for national security reasons and questioned whether Denmark has any legal right to the Arctic island. The debate has revived scrutiny of how Greenland became part of Denmark, its current self-rule and path to independence, and Washington’s military footprint. HOW DID DENMARK GET GREENLAND? Greenland was inhabited by Inuit peoples from Asia and North America intermittently from around 2,500 BC. Around 985 AD, Vikings led by Erik the Red settled in southern Greenland, farming and building churches. Around the same time, ancestors of today’s Inuit arrived, living as hunters