肆無忌憚 第四屆女節

Women's theater in spotlight as 4-yearly festival kicks off
Drama addicts are to be treated to 6 performances by female directors


By Hermia Lin
Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

Page 3, 2008-05-13 12:42 AM


The highly-anticipated Taiwan Women's Theatre Festival that is held every four years will officially kick off on today at Taipei's Guling St. Avant-Garde Theatre, presenting drama addicts with six diverse performances that are all created by female directors.

The two dramas that will be staged from May 15 to May 18 are "Women with Suitcases" and "Bu Fen," directed and written by Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) and Tu She-hui respectively. Tickets to the two performances are available through www.artsticket.com.tw

In "Women with Suitcases," the lead actress cannot help but travel across as many countries as she can. She does not stay at each travel destination for a long period of time, but just keeps crossing borders between different countries. It is not until the death of her mother that she stops making travel plans and begins to ponder on the meaning of travel. The drama's sub-plot is about a migrant bride arriving in Taiwan, and the two actresses, holding their own suitcases, finally bump into each other and begin to find answers to the questions about their lives.

There is a huge mirror hanging from the ceiling over the stage, allowing the audience to veiw the performance from different angles.

Lin, who is in her late 20s, said at yesterday's press conference that she gave a lot of thought about the moving body in our high-speed world.

"Many friends of my age like to travel around the world, I am no exception. It seems that the body is free when one travels around the globe. But I constantly wonder whether one really obtains freedom during the constant travel experiences, or does one just travel for travel's sake?" Lin asked.

Bu Fen, which in Chinese means "no separation" and "not categorized," on the other hand, is more about a quest into asking and discovering why the world separates nearly everything into different categories, including the use of language and gender in same-sex couples.

Tu not only wrote and directed the drama by herself, she is also the sole actress for the performance. She plays four roles in the drama.

Lin said she was invited to participate at the Asia Queer Conference last year, but she did not want just to submit a paper for the conference. Instead, she wrote the drama Bu Fen to share with the conference participants her ideas of "no separation" and "not categorized" in homosexuality and in gender.

"In Taiwan, lesbians are categorized into 'butch' and 'femme,' but I am thinking there must be another possibility- 'Bu Fen' in a same-sex relationship," said Tu.

Betsy Lan, a drama director and curator for the theatre festival, said Bu Fen is surely the most entertaining and humorous drama of the six performances, and urged drama fans to check out all six of pieces.

Lan noted that there are many pros and cons concerning the theatre festival being held every four years. She said things change a lot during four years as many performance groups might disappear or many young talents may pop up. "The theatre festival offers a channel for female creators to show their creations.