One of the buzzwords in theater this year has been the term “fixed title theater” (定目劇), which has been used to describe the creation of big shows with long runs that are able to attract tourists and locals looking for theatrical entertainment, but who aren’t necessarily regular theater goers. Strictly speaking, this term is translated as “repertory theater,” but the idea is very different from what repertory connotes in the English theatrical tradition. One of the highlights that has been created as a result of the promotion of this type of production has been Contemporary Legend Theater’s (當代傳奇劇場) Legend Opera II series, a series of over 60 performances at the Auditorium of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The Legend Opera II series is a new format for the theatrical group, mixing up straight performances of Beijing opera classics with modernized shows aimed at appealing to a younger audience. More importantly, some of the shows will be performed by young performers who have aspirations to become the next generation of Beijing opera stars.
Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國), the founder of Contemporary Legend, has been fearless in finding ways to put Beijing opera in front of audiences outside the tight niche of elderly opera aficionados.
Taipei Times file photo
Other shows, most notably the revival of the social comedy Can Three Make It (三人行不行) by Ping Fong Acting Troupe (屏風表演班), which was staged as part of the Huashan Living Arts Festival (華山藝術生活節), proved that for productions that somehow manage to hit exactly the right note, it is possible for long-running shows to make a respectable box office showing. Unfortunately, the number of such shows has proved consistently small, and tends toward a kind of live vaudeville format that is not easily exportable.
Can Three Make It was one of many highlights at the Huashan Living Arts Festival (華山藝術生活節), which showcased a vast array of local theater, music, visual arts and cinema, and which took place at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914) in October.
This year, the event featured over 500 performances, screenings, seminars and workshops and it has already established itself as a major event on Taipei’s increasingly crowded arts calendar, as well as being an important showcase for artists striving for wider audience recognition. In addition to promoting the work of local artists, the festival has also helped Huashan establish itself as a place where art and theater can be found throughout the year, and events there are increasingly able to draw audiences from across a broad spectrum.
Taipei Times file photo
Among big, new productions that premiered in 2012, the season kicked off in March with the massive Cleopatra and Her Fools (艷后和她的小丑們), an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra by the Guo Guang Opera Company (國光劇團). The show featured some of the leading lights of Taiwan’s opera establishment, but in the end it turned out to be nothing more than a solid ensemble piece with one star turn, and with far too much invested in lavish costumes and various incidentals. The result was eye-catching rather than memorable.
Another big-ticket item was the production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (不可兒戲) adapted by Yu Kuang-chung (余光中). The success of the Chinese adaptation owes much to the skill of Yu, who is best known as a poet, essayist and prolific translator. Apart from the verbal pyrotechnics, Yu said that The Importance of Being Earnest was a social satire, and despite the period setting and the razor-sharp banter, the play is rooted in the hypocrisy and vanity that characterized Victorian England — which, when you think about it, mirrors much of contemporary society.
Every now and then, it’s nice to just point somewhere on a map and head out with no plan. In Taiwan, where convenience reigns, food options are plentiful and people are generally friendly and helpful, this type of trip is that much easier to pull off. One day last November, a spur-of-the-moment day hike in the hills of Chiayi County turned into a surprisingly memorable experience that impressed on me once again how fortunate we all are to call this island home. The scenery I walked through that day — a mix of forest and farms reaching up into the clouds
With one week left until election day, the drama is high in the race for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair. The race is still potentially wide open between the three frontrunners. The most accurate poll is done by Apollo Survey & Research Co (艾普羅民調公司), which was conducted a week and a half ago with two-thirds of the respondents party members, who are the only ones eligible to vote. For details on the candidates, check the Oct. 4 edition of this column, “A look at the KMT chair candidates” on page 12. The popular frontrunner was 56-year-old Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文)
“How China Threatens to Force Taiwan Into a Total Blackout” screamed a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) headline last week, yet another of the endless clickbait examples of the energy threat via blockade that doesn’t exist. Since the headline is recycled, I will recycle the rebuttal: once industrial power demand collapses (there’s a blockade so trade is gone, remember?) “a handful of shops and factories could run for months on coal and renewables, as Ko Yun-ling (柯昀伶) and Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯) pointed out in a piece at Taiwan Insight earlier this year.” Sadly, the existence of these facts will not stop the
Oct. 13 to Oct. 19 When ordered to resign from her teaching position in June 1928 due to her husband’s anti-colonial activities, Lin Shih-hao (林氏好) refused to back down. The next day, she still showed up at Tainan Second Preschool, where she was warned that she would be fired if she didn’t comply. Lin continued to ignore the orders and was eventually let go without severance — even losing her pay for that month. Rather than despairing, she found a non-government job and even joined her husband Lu Ping-ting’s (盧丙丁) non-violent resistance and labor rights movements. When the government’s 1931 crackdown
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