A fictional Taiwanese embassy that has been built in three European countries in a play about the diplomatic situation faced by the nation returns to Taipei at the National Theater this weekend, the National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) said.
This is not an Embassy performed by three Taiwanese — a retired diplomat, a jazz musician and the founder of a non-governmental organization (NGO) promoting exchanges between Taiwan and other countries — is scheduled to be staged from today to Sunday.
The play, jointly produced by the NTCH and the Theatre Vidy-Lausanne in Switzerland, premiered in Berlin in January, followed by a performance in Vienna, as well as in the Swiss cities of Basel and Lausanne, the arts center said.
Photo courtesy of the National Theater and Concert Hall via CNA
The three performers — 72-year-old former ambassador to Belize David Wu (吳建國), 32-year-old Taiwan Digital Diplomacy Association founder Chiayo Kuo (郭家佑) and 28-year-old jazz musician Debby Wang (王思雅) — shared their own stories and views on Taiwan as a country while establishing an embassy in the places where they performed.
Director Stefan Kaegi said he began “understanding how peculiar the international situation of Taiwan is,” because of an invitation to give a lecture in Taipei from the Trade Office of Swiss Industries (in Taiwan) about two years ago.
“I wondered that I have nothing to do with trade or industries, however, they said to me, Actually we are a kind of embassy,’” said Kaegi, a cofounder of the Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll theater group.
Kaegi visited Taiwanese representative offices in Germany and France and grew interested in “all the creative solutions you and your representatives and NGOs find to put Taiwan on the international map.”
The three performers were invited to take part in the project after Kaegi interviewed more than 70 Taiwanese ranging from artists and historians to journalists and diplomats in 2022, the NTCH said.
The director and documentary maker was hosted by the NTCH as an artist-in-residence for six weeks at that time.
Meanwhile, Theatre Vidy-Lausanne director of artistic and international projects Caroline Barneaud said the shows in different countries have been adapted for local audiences to make connections between Taiwan and each country.
“People are really touched by all the stories” told by the three performers on stage, and the production “made a lot of connections on history, on the relationship to identity, nation and democracy,” she said.
The play is scheduled to be staged in other countries, including France, South Korea and Australia, she added.
The NTCH said it released more tickets to the Opentix ticketing service from Monday after the three shows in Taipei sold out.
Originally performed in English, the three shows in Taipei are to be performed in Chinese, with English subtitles available, it said.
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