Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The play reveals the surface layer and inner content of social cases, between the criminal and the blind woman, there are explosive dramatic tensions of probing and uneasiness. The two characters—one dynamic and one static, one tough and one fragile—struggle with one another both physically and verbally, as if engaging in a death match. The story then takes on a sharp turn to focus on the mother-son relationship—the eldest son criticizes the mother as being biased, and his brother a coward, and the younger brother believes that the blind mother is insane—all three characters believe in their own justice. The balance eventually breaks, leading to an irreversible ending. The square fence around the set is a sarcastic design: the madness of implosion is the jail that holds others and oneself! Audiences are kept on the edge of their seats throughout the play - what a thriller!   Committee member:Yu, Shan-Lu

Artwork Introduction

Fantasy Theatre’s Cheat to Cheat is based on an original script by Ho, Bing-Hsiu. There are only three characters in the play—the blind old woman, the robber and the son. The playwright devised a play-within-a-play structure, drawing the audience into the world of the old lady.

The story depicts a robber who poses as a potential tenant for a room for rent in the old woman's home. Realizing that the old woman is blind, compassion sets in, and the robber decides to continue to feigning his interest as a tenant. As the two characters carry on a dialogue, their conversation is at first seemingly commonplace, but gradually, it grows to reveal a conflict in moral values and the complex problems that exist between two different generations. In the process, the robber covers up his initial motive of crime and begins to experience increased feelings of self-worth and varying degrees of status. The dramatic structure of the story, like a societal event, contains dialogues between perpetrators and victims. While the outside audience watches with indifference and with the reductionism of good and evil rendered by a sensationalistic mass media, the play’s vision points to a different way of looking at current affairs. The old woman was played by Lu, Yi-Ching, who was awarded Best Actress at the Asia Pacific Film Festival. In 2008, the script won the Jury’s Recommendation Prize in the stage play category of the Taipei Literature Award.

About the Artist

Fantasy Theatre is headed by Director Liao, Jun-Kai and Artistic Director Judy Tseng. It gathers young playwrights, designers, producers and other performing-arts professionals, and encourages the production of new, original theatrical works that aim to link social issues, stimulate dialogue and reflect on people's lives.