- Date 2018.06.22
- Venue Cihiayi Performing Arts Experimental Theater
An Oxcart for Dowry
Our Theatre
Comments on the Finalist
Our Theatre continues its practice of localizing and translating Western plays with productions in Taiwanese, and takes on the challenge of producing a classic of nativist literature, An Oxcart for Dowry. Wang Zhen-He’s helpless and struggling characters in strained circumstances from the lower social stratum are reinvented in Lin Meng-Huan and Lu Chih-Chieh’s script. The actors’ fluent delivery and precise grasp of the Taiwanese language skillfully cloaks compassion in crude mockeries and teases. The blind ox becomes a detached on-looker that leads the audience to perceive the hateful but also pitiable characters. Driven by desire and consequently surrendering to fate, they embody the greed and cruelty in a capitalist society. The highly recognizable musical rhythm of the Ryuzanji Company furthermore highlights the underlying sense of absurdity and sarcasm in the original story. The theater company’s approach to delineate the land through art in recent years is realized with profoundness in this work.
(Commentator: CHEN Yi-Chen)
Artwork Introduction
An Oxcart for Dowry, a theatre production by Japanese director Show Ryuzanji with the script written by Lin Meng-Huan and Lu Chih-Chieh, is an adaptation of Wang Zhen-He’s homonymous novel. It is the sixth adaptation work since the theatre company launched its series of Taiwanese adaptations since 2012, and the first adaptation that features a literary work from Taiwan rather than Western classics. An Oxcart for Dowry portrays the sarcastic, bittersweet and difficult life of grassroots characters. The production marks the third anniversary of the collaboration between the theatre company and Ryuzanji Company, and is integrated with Show Ryuzanji’s distinctive artistic style. Through parts of music and dance incorporated with a cinematic rhythm and vibrant performance style, the dialogue between modern theatre and the traditional, native theme ushers in a new horizon and expression for the theatrical adaptation of Taiwanese literature while validating the theatre company’s endeavor in bettering the theatre industry and culture with “script, language and native culture.”
About the Artist
Founded in Chiayi in 2003 and primarily comprising alumni from the School of Theatre Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts, the Chinese character “阮” in the name of the theatre company literally means “we” in Taiwanese. The theatre company became officially established in 2006 and was the first modern theatre company in the greater Chiayi area. Since its establishment, Chiayi has been the creative base of Our Theatre that aims to incorporate local culture into modern theatrical productions while actively engaging the public and society. Over the years, the theatre company has upheld the objectives of “creation,” “research” and “education/promotion” to consistently immerse its audience in cultural energies with over seven hundred performances already. Since 2012, Our Theatre started adapting Western classics into Taiwanese productions with local features, gradually formulating its unique aesthetic style with the folk color conveyed through the Taiwanese language.
Production Team
Original Author：Wang Zhen-He
Producer：Jhao-Cian Wang
Director：Show Ryuzanji
Assistant Director：Yamazaki Reiko, Wang Jhao-Cian
Playwright：Lin Meng-Huan, Lu Chih-Chieh
Translator(From Chinese to Japanese) ：Wang Tan
Stage Manager： Chen Chao-Chun
Assistant Stage Manager： Huang Yong- Zhi
Set Designer： Chen Jin-Ting
Technical Director： Liu Bo-Yan, Lin Kun-Hsien
Lighting Designer： Kao Chih-Chien
Master Electrician： Yang Chia-hsuan
Custom Designer： Huang Sunny
Assistant Custom Designer：Yi Hsiang-Hsu
Composer：Suwa Sou
Sound Designer：Ko Chun-Yuan
Sound Technician：Chen Yu-Chien, Zhang Zhi-hui
Vocal Coach： Deen Chang
Choreographer： Lin Su-Lien, Chang Ya-Wei
Origin Vision Concept： Lee Ming-Chen, Chuang Yi-Tseng
Calligraphy：Chen Shih-Hsien
Key Vision Design： Gong Pei-Lin
Photographer： HUANG Jiong-Che
Commercial Film： Chen Yun-Shan, Yan Jie
Accompanying writer： Yeh Yu-Ting
Actors and Actress：Yamashita Naoya, Fang Min-Yuan, Kozu Takuhei,
Yu Pen-Chieh, R Ho ay-Kang, Lee Chi-Lin,
Chou Chun-Peng, Chen Shou-Yu, Chen Yan-Da,
Chen Ying-Ta, Chung Pin-Chiao, Liao Jia-Hui
Rehearsal Assistant：Wu Hsin-Yi,Wu, Yi-Ying Chuang, Ting-Yu
Administrative Coordination：Liao Hsin-Tung
Executive Producer：Hsu Hui-Lin
PR：Tsai Ming-Chun, Chiou Shu-Kai
