- Date 2023.05.12
- Venue Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center
Apostating Time (2023 Taiwan Traditional Theatre Festival, 2023 NTT Fall for Great Souls)
approaching theatre & Gang-a Tsui Theater
Jury’s Comments for the 22nd Grand Prize Winner
The audience is compelled to confront the reverberations of political intrigue and the tough choices in life amidst the melodies of Nanguan, an ancient musical genre from Quanzhou (China), and the stage action. Through a meticulously crafted narrative structure, Apostating Time delves into the historical predicaments and transforms profound introspection into heartfelt criticism to reflect the fragility and complexity of human nature. The artistic mastery is evident in the production's calm yet powerful fusion of Nanguan (Liyuan) opera and modern theater. By harmonizing the overall performance with the fluidity of forms, the production explores the latent language between these theatrical genres. “approaching theatre” and “Gang-a Tsui Theater” demonstrates remarkable courage in this collaboration to illuminate the unbearable weight of life with such artistic dialectics, and ultimately reveals more possibilities for contemporary theatre.
Comments on the Finalist
Apostating Time borrows the forms of Liyuan opera and avant-garde theater, which become inter-referencing in the production, and visualizes the temporal dimension in the foreground as an intervening element that represents memory. From the mise-en-scène on the stage and movement choices, the playwright and director find the connection between the body techniques in modern performance and Liyuan opera. The anachronistic feeling of representing the trauma memories of contemporary politics is linked with ZHU Bian’s text of Liyuan opera through the performance of a highly physical form. The performance of historical memories by the actors shatters the assumption of a single space-time on the stage. Meanwhile, the creation of space-time depends entirely on the actors’ body techniques. When not performing their roles, they become the medium of specters, moving between the past and the present before eventually going through the fissure of the represented space-time and entering the psychological depth of history’s specters. (Commentator: HSU Jen-Hao)
Artwork Introduction
Apostating Time draws inspiration from the traditional Nanguan play, Zhu Bian, which is passed down from the Song and Yuan dynasties, combining traditional and modern theater to weave two stories that transcend space and time. The production of Apostating Time dives into the archetype of the Pan-Chinese spiritual nostalgia and its emotional roots, resetting all questions and doubts with the contemporary language in a context of reality vs. fiction. By putting aside the deep-rooted historical conclusions, the work seeks to reflect on the breaks in identity in the process of diaspora and the possibility of a continuously shifting identity in the construction of a common body. How are we to understand the conflicting and/or abandoned beliefs and emotions? In the midst of diaspora, how can we approach the obscure spiritual structure that has been suppressed and distorted?
About the Artist
Founded in 2014 by KOH Choon-Eiow and CHENG Yin-Chen, approaching theatre is based on the idea of getting closer to the origin of art. They work on playwriting and directing, as well as drama education. In recent years, they have promoted the training of the “Free Performers,” inheriting the spirit of one of the pioneers of Taiwanese Theatre, CHOU Yi-Chang while focusing on mind-body awareness and preserving local culture.
The Gang-a Tsui Theater was founded in 1993. After the founding director ZHOU Yi-Chang passed away unexpectedly during a trip to research in Indonesia in 2016, the theater company was re-registered by the theater’s senior members CHEN Chia-Wen and WEI Mei-Hui in 2017, who now serve as its director and deputy director. They have continued Zhou’s objective of modernizing Nanguan and shouldered the mission to promote this art form through various means, including free workshops, lectures, and summer camps, actively continuing the traditions of Nanguan and Liyuan opera. Through various forms of cultural exchange and integration, they hope to preserve the history of Nanguan while experimenting with new forms of combining Nanguan with other cultural forms without violating its essential spirit to uncover new sparks in amalgamating traditional art and aesthetics with modern theater.
Production Team
Dramaturgy|CHI Hui Ling
Director/Playwright |Koh Choon Eiow
Performer|WEI Mei-Hui、Chen Yan-Xi、CHENG Yin-Chen、Lin Zi-Heng、Wang Chao-Yang、LI Wei-Cih
Musician|CHEN Chia-Wen 、LIAO Yu-Ning 、LAI Hong-Ling 、CHEN Hsiao-Ying、LIU Meng-Ling 、CHEN Yi-Lien
Producer|YANG Kai-Ting、LIU Wan-Yi
Lighting Design|CHEN GUAN-LIN
Sound Design|Lin Yu-De
Costume Design|Lin,Yu ling
Visual Design |YANG Kai-Ting
Set Designer|Lin yu-quan
Stage Manager|Chang Yi Chin
Mixing Engineer |Chung Yang Che
Rehearsal Assistant|Li Yu Ting, Kuo Chia-Yu
Visual Design|Marco Meng-Tsung Liu
Photographer|Lin yu-quan
Production|approaching theatre x Gang-a Tsui Theater
Organizer|National Center for Traditional Arts
Co-production|National Taichung Theater
Advisory Organization|Ministry of Culture