Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The playwright, Chi Wei-Jan, continued his observation of the desolation of the society and personal lives. Focusing on some early middle–aged guys, he managed to sort out the conflicts, betrayals, interdependence, truth and lies between them, in wishes to present absurd and pathetic social conditions people have suffered from and created ever since the nineties. With abundant interruptions, meaningless arguments, and dumb jokes, the dialogues pointed out the absurdity about the characters and their situations. The director coordinated the stage, the music, and the performance to the full extent, making this language-oriented play going smoothly and filled with twists and turns. The four young actors did a good job at portraying different characters and their unstable relationships.

Artwork Introduction

Da Niu, Xiao Ma and A Cheng were in a basement bar and talked about a surprise party which would be held soon. Each of them was having a different life: Da Niu enjoyed an easy life resulting from good relationship with the governmental officials; Xiao Ma was depressed because of the layoff by his newspaper company; A Cheng just returned from abroad and was eagerly to dedicate himself to his work.

After the discussion on the surprise party, lots of surprises happened. They surprisingly found that their conversation was overheard by Shan Zhu; Da Niu found that A Cheng was pulling his leg behind his back; Xiao Ma found that his girl friend was still in love with his ex, A Cheng. What more terrible is that Xiao Ma and A Cheng noticed that they seemed to be able to “rewind” what happened in their life. What did it mean to “rewind one’s life”? If one can rewind his life, can he go back to the past and foresee his future?

About the Artist

The Taishin Arts Award is a remarkable recognition for “Déjàvu”. Thanks to the jurors for your appreciation. It encourages the Creative Society to insist on creation regardless of the failure of box office.

Production Team

Production Company： National Theatre