Love and the difficulty of finding it are topics that have inspired countless artistic musings. Theater veteran Hsu Yen-ling’s (徐堰鈴) newest work, Drifting (迷離劫), contemplates this complex theme.
Produced by Shakespeare’s Wild Sister Group (莎士比亞的妹妹們的劇團), Drifting will be performed at the National Experimental Theater (國家實驗劇場) tonight through Sunday.
Hsu’s sixth directorial work is an envelope-pushing play inspired by passages from Marguerite Duras’ Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein and India Song. The production stars Chu Hung-chang (朱宏章), Lin Yu-ling (林鈺玲), Mo Tzu-yi (莫子儀), Wei Ching-ju (魏沁如), Stiya Lee (李辰翔) and Tsai Yi-ling (蔡佾玲).
Photo courtesy of Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group
“This work explores the stifling nature of desire and the improbability of love,” Hsu told the Taipei Times in a phone interview last week. “There is no story. I aim to explore the themes through word, sound, image and lighting.”
At a rehearsal on Thursday last week, six actors portraying three couples flirted, fought and then made up in a riveting opening scene. Then they swapped partners and confided to one other in interlocking monologues that revealed tales of frazzled love. In a drama that makes no attempt at storytelling, Hsu explores the theme of treacherous love through an edgy mixture of poetry-like monologues, occasional sound effects, and songs.
“I try to find the relation between language and word, between actors’ performances and the theater space,” Hsu said. “Experimental theater allows you to explore the form and the aesthetics. It can sharpen your depth.”
Drifting marks the second installment in Hsu’s Marguerite Duras Project, following last year’s The Track on the Beach (海灘上的腳印). Duras is mostly known for her autobiographical novel The Lover, which was adapted into an acclaimed film in 1992.
“Duras’ works explore the themes of desire, love, memory and time,” Hsu explained. “I didn’t become aware of the presence of death until the recent years and I became obsessed with her works.”
As one of the most successful theater actresses in Taiwan, Hsu has been in 60-plus productions and has been dubbed “theater’s minor diva” (劇場小天后) by local media. She’s starred in Stan Lai’s (賴聲川) A Dream Like a Dream (如夢之夢) and Ping-Fong Acting Troupe’s (屏風表演班) Wedding Memories (女兒紅).
Hsu made her directorial/screenwriting debut in 2004 with Skin Touch (踏青去) and followed that up in 2006 with Sister Trio (三姊妹), both of which explore lesbian relationships.
Hsu said she would continue her directorial work and pursue both traditional theater topics and lesbianism.
“With the theater route, I want to develop my forms and aesthetics further,” she said. “With lesbianism, I want to tell the audiences what lesbians are like by giving them close-to-real-life stories.”
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