Alternative Theater in Taiwan: Feminist and Intercultural Approac ...

In Dai’s feminist theater performance at the International Women’s Drama Festival in 2004, the audience might notice that this lesbian love was wrapped in the classical Chinese Kunqu.

Wu Xin-chou’s Antigone presents how Antigone’s innocent and straightforward character fights the political establishment with determination. Wu’s production of Antigone was composed of numerous intercultural elements. For instance, Wu did not adapt the play from the Greek tragedy, but from a French play by Anouilh. The play was performed in a Taiwanese dialect. Wu’s Antigone also combined elements of Taiwanese Go Tsz Si¹⁷ singing, American modern dance, a chorus employing both Greek and Chinese styles, traditional Chinese story telling¹⁸, a fusion of Western and Chinese costumes, and Chinese and American puppets. In particular, a huge puppet reminiscent of Peter Schuman’s Bread and Puppet Theater appeared, but was costumed in traditional Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese Shaman clothes.

In Antigone, even the spoken language of the play is caught up in complex national and diasporic identities. Wu used the Fujianese dialect, which is the main dialect spoken in Taiwan, to stage her production. Though most Taiwan productions were staged in Mandarin, the dominant high language, Wu used the dialect to evoke the audience’s identification with their own island.

Wu’s Antigone was performed in a cultural legacy—the Castle of Safety and Peace—in Tainan, a city which evokes the colonial history and culture of Southern Taiwan. The artillery in the castle was used by the Taiwanese people to defend themselves from the Dutch colonizers, under the leadership of Cheng Chen-Gon, a General at the end of Ming Dynasty.