This is the first original experimental Kunqu Opera produced in Taiwan. Before 2/1Q Theatre was formally established, the opera was a group creation of Director Dai Jun-fang, Yang Han-ru, a xiao-sheng actor of Kunqu Opera, Shi-gong Zhong-hao, stage designer, and others. The opera was soon nominated ...Read more
This is the first original experimental Kunqu Opera produced in Taiwan. Before 2/1Q Theatre was formally established, the opera was a group creation of Director Dai Jun-fang, Yang Han-ru, a xiao-sheng actor of Kunqu Opera, Shi-gong Zhong-hao, stage designer, and others. The opera was soon nominated for the Tai Shin Arts Award for the Best 10 Performances of the Year, and soon became the leading production of the theatre once it was founded.
This opera puts together the three scenes, “Coitus in the Dream,” “Disturbance of Love-making”, and “A Vow” of Peony Pavilion, a famous Kunqu opera by Tang Xian-zu, and presents these classic scenes with modern stage techniques. A see-saw chair designed by Shi-gong Zhong-hao, which replaced the original table and two chairs, and the rotating circular stage activated by a bicycle peddles, wonderfully recreate the dream and the reality that the protagonists go in and out of and the love affair between the two worlds of humans and ghosts.
Director Dai Jun-fang is of the view that modernization of traditional operas depends on a performance system that presents reality with fantasy, so as to form a dialectical relationship with stage time and space hinted at by jianchang actors (stage hands). In the process of modernizing traditional operas, jian-chang actors do not often appear. To maintain the esthetic contribution that jian-chang actors have provided for operatic performances, a number of meta-characters were created: they sometimes are not members of the opera troupe, but sometimes they are actively involved by choice. Such innovation creates the effect of endowing the Chinese classics with elements of Western post-modernism.
Category | Xiqu(Traditional Opera) |
Type | Kunqu Opera |
Chinese Title | 柳.夢.梅 |
Group | 1/2 Q Theatre |
Creative staff | 1/2 Q Theatre |
Subtitle | Mandarin Chinese /English |
Premiere | 2004-04-02 |
Venue | Crown Theatre,Taipei |
Duration | 60min |
Image Source | |
Other Works | Romance of the Red Chamber Portrait of Love |