Nudity is not uncommon in many modern art forms, but it still generates frenzied media coverage in the local papers. For a show called Swirl (旋) at Huashan Arts District (華山藝文特區) from next Wednesday, eight performers will go on stage without clothes for five minutes and possibly make "suggestive" movements.
The five year-old Sun Son Theatre (身聲演繹社) group is well-known for its frequent street performances, drum circles and being sensational. One and half years ago the group was involved in a late night performance called Fire Drum Circle (火鼓陣) at Huashan, but two Taipei City counselors slammed it at a press conference for being a "foreigner's head-shaking [ecstasy] party" (老外搖頭派對), pointing out that some of the audience and participants were using drugs.
Now, Sun Son Theatre seems poised to generate more controversy with its latest and biggest show so far, Swirl, which will be performed at the Huashan arts space five days in a row.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUN SON THEATER
"I hope what the audience sees are human bodies, not nudity or pornography," said Leonson Chong-leong Ng (吳忠良), artistic director of the group.
Ng said the main theme of Swirl is to reveal the unbalanced relations between men and women, or in his words, Yin and Yang.
Or as one of the actors said in the play during rehearsal: "The earth rotates with an inclined angle. People walk askew on earth. Men and women are becoming unbalanced. And the incomplete mythology of human beings still goes on."
Swirl is a play with abundant body movements, drumming and few clothes. The actors are topless and actresses wear plain tank tops and shorts, including Ng's wife Chien Chao-yi (簡昭宜), the actress and managing director of the group.
In one scene an actress performs a monologue covering the major agonies of a woman's life cycle, including, the pain of menstrual periods, the pain of leaving one's parents for marriage, the pain of pregnancy. At the back of the stage, Chien lies on the floor and screams out loudly, as if she is experiencing the pain of childbirth.
Director Ng confirmed the idea for the play was inspired by his wife's pregnancy.
Ng said the play had been "a process of self-reflection and catharsis," but stressed it was neither a feminist or didactic play.
"I will be careful about this. We are merely presenting phenomena or emotions. We don't give you any answers," he said.
The play is also enriched with ritual-like performances and a festive atmosphere. More than a dozen kinds of ethnic percussion instruments, including African, Nepalese and Chinese drums and gongs are used skillfully by the performers. There are also exotic instruments used to create musical sounds on stage, such as Digerridoos or simple plastic tubes purchased from hardware stores.
All the actors have been trained to play percussion for at least three years, practicing up to five hours a day.
"We first started training them [the actors] by asking them to use their left hand when eating with chopsticks and brushing their teeth. This is for the right-handers to balance the strength of both hands and arms," Chien said.
For the performers, however, the most difficult part is still the five-minute nude scene. At this point the actors slowly take off their already scant clothes and at one point, eight of them will tangle together, with their arms and legs locking, wriggling as if they were amoeba or cells in a human body.
"At first I was really frightened. I dared not tell my parents about this part of the play. Also I was very anxious about showing the pimples on my back and my chest," said 25 year-old actor Hsu Hao-hsiang (許灝翔).
"As a girl I was naturally shy of exhibiting my body. I have been a nude model for paintings, but showing my body in front of hundreds of people, it's a first for me," said 26 year-old actress Liu Pei-feng (劉佩芬).
But both of them, as well as the other actors, are convinced that the naked scene looks "exceptionally beautiful" and is necessary for the show because of the emotional and visual flow of the play.
"If there was no trust between me and my actors, I would not have asked them to try this challenge," Ng said.
"Overseas, nudity has not been an issue for a long time. But in Taiwan, people are still worrying," Chien added.
Police from Taipei's Chung-cheng district first precinct are now watching closely to see if the nudity crosses the line of obscenity.
"Normally nudity is allowed for arts performances. But if there are suggestive movements between men and men, men and women, or women and women, they can be considered obscene in public, thus violating the criminal law on decency," officer Yu Yi-hsien (余一縣) was quoted as saying by local media. The sentence for breaking the law can be up to two years in prison, Yu said.
So far, no arts group has been banned or charged because of nude performances. The earliest naked art performance in Taiwan took place in 1985, when Japanese theater group White Tiger Troupe (白虎社) performed in Taipei. After this, a couple of experimental theater groups followed with small doses of nudity. Despite creating controversy, no groups have been indicted.
But to avoid trouble, Sun Son Theatre has now printed a warning on the tickets to the show: "Parent advisory for the show may cause disturbance for the audience." [sic].
Ng seems rather calm facing the potential troubles. He said he welcomed the police watching the show. But he asked them to kindly wear their uniforms.
"We don't want plainclothesmen to come and use hidden cameras or gather so-called evidence. It would be, after all, an intrusion," he said.
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