For this play, the troupe invited Tomoe Shizune, arts director of the Tomoe Shizune & Hakutobo to be their guest director. While keeping to the original spirit of Nanguan, they adopted a traditional Liyuan play, Take the Road, and the choreography of the Japanese avant-garde Butoh aesthetics to ...Read more
For this play, the troupe invited Tomoe Shizune, arts director of the Tomoe Shizune & Hakutobo to be their guest director. While keeping to the original spirit of Nanguan, they adopted a traditional Liyuan play, Take the Road, and the choreography of the Japanese avant-garde Butoh aesthetics to explore the possibility of a dialogue between Chinese traditional theater and post-modern performing arts. The play won the fifth Taixin Arts Award. The judge of the award, Yang Mei-ying, noted the production's interaction, vibration and flowing life energy between the body and space of different arts.
In this story, scholar Zhubun, who failed the government examination, sought accommodation in his relative's house, but without success. He therefore lodged at Wang's guesthouse temporarily. The ghost of Wang's adoptive daughter, Yilijin, adores Zhubun for his honesty. In the middle of the night, she takes on human form and enters Zhubun's room on the pretext of getting a fire for the lantern. Unable to resist her seduction, Zhubun agrees to marry her. Yilijin gives him her embroidered pouch as a token of their betrothal. On the second morning, Zhubun accidentally drops the pouch. When the Wangs pick it up and recognize the pouch to be their adoptive daughter's mortuary objects, they accuse Zhubun of raiding her tomb. After Zhubun tells them what happened the previous night. The Wangs show him Yilijin's portrait and reveal the fact that she is already dead. Frightened, Zhubun flees on the spot. In haste, Yilijin pursues Zhubun and convinces him that she is human, and not a ghost. Finally, the pair elopes.
Category | Xiqu(Traditional Opera) |
Type | Li Yuan Opera |
Chinese Title | 朱文走鬼 |
Group | Gang-a Tsui Theater |
Creative staff | Gang-a Tsui Theater |
Subtitle | Mandarin Chinese / English |
Premiere | 2006-11-23 |
Venue | National Theater & Concert Hall-Experimental Theater,Taipei |
Duration | 65min |
Image Source | |
Other Works | Whispering from the Rear Garden |