Address:No. 449-1 Nanjing Rd., Fengshan Dist., Kaohsiung City 83079, Taiwan
For four consecutive weekends starting on Oct. 19, four unique local troupes will each present a stylized play at the Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts in Kaohsiung City during the "2013 Play Theater Festival.”
The M.O.V.E. Theatre (運動劇場) will open the festival with a work titled "1:0” from their sports theater series, which cleverly combine various sports with different situations in life. The performance, in which performers act solely by moving their bodies, is the first of its kind in Taiwan. In 2011, the show was staged at the OFF Festival d'Avignon and received wide acclaim.
On Oct. 27, the Tainan-based IS 18 LABO (南島十八劇場) will fuse theater with games in "Dream of Grass Labyrinth,” a piece inspired by Japanese writer Kyoka Izumi's fantasy novel titled "Grass Labyrinth.” The play portrays a journey through memories between one who is looking for a missing person and the missing one. Started by a singing traveler who got lost, the memories forms a labyrinth as time passes.
The "American Dream Factory” will be staged by Against Again Troupe (再一次拒絕長大劇團) the following weekend. The play is made up of twelve dreams acted out on a stage full of symbols and totems of popular culture and merchandise. It explores the themes of existence, labor and dreams in regards to the current generation of young people, and how individuals are homogenized by simplified social expectations and ultimately depleted by the capitalist society.
On Nov. 2, The Party Theater Group (同黨劇團) will stage "I Am My Own Wife,” a former Broadway play that features only one performer. American playwright Doug Wright wrote the play based on his 1993 interview with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a legendary transvestite woman born in Nazi Germany. Based on von Mahlsdorf's life experiences, the play depicts her struggles against social oppression and her courage for challenging social taboos by cross-dressing.
'1:0' / M.O.V.E. Theatre
'Dream of Grass Labyrinth' / IS 18 LABO
'American Dream Factory' / Against Again Troupe
'I Am My Own Wife' / The Party Theater Group