Rehearsals for the revival of
“Hazardous Games around Hearts and Arrows”,
Yi-Xin Taiwanese Opera Company
Taoyuan, Taiwan, September 2018
Taipei Arts Festival
Sun Yat Sen Hall
September 2017
“‘Hazardous games around hearts and arrows’ is a stunning success as a comedy, the audience is laughing constantly, no doubt about this. But I think the powerful point about Lukas Hemleb’s direction is that he is not bulging out his particular view or interpretation – he goes, on the basis of the taiwanese opera tradition, his own opera director’s experience at hand, into many precise details, to strengthen the inner chemistry of the action, and to develop a vision that is always related to the heartfelt emotions of every character in the play. That means that you probably don’t see immediately many differences with taiwanese opera that you saw before, but, after a while, you discover that it’s inner making isn’t the same at all. I think that between Lukas and his way of directing there is an affinity with his master Luc Bondy: both have a very strong feeling for rhythm and details. That draws the spectators unconsciously into the dynamics of the play, to a point that they might think that there is no director at all. But in fact, the director is omnipresent, as if he had melted into the action.”
Keng Yi-Wei, Taipei Arts Festival
When Taiwanese Opera meets a European Opera director for the first time.
“Hazardous Games around Hearts and Arrows” is the first collaboration of Yi Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe and a foreign director. Adapted from the work by the 18-century famous playwright Marivaux who liked to emphasize the characteristics of actors / actresses, the detailed emotions and mental analysis to dissect human nature with his own language, this artistic collaboration between director Lukas Hemleb and YiShin is surely to begin a new chapter for the Taiwanese operas.
The name of Yi Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe means “united we stand”, brilliantly incorporating its founding spirit and has never been forgotten by its members since its establishment more than 30 years ago. The troupe members have always maintained their ambition to produce good dramas and constantly improved themselves by producing many widely-loved Taiwanese operas which are highly praised by many experts. One of the scholars said, “
their performance displays the director’s style; an indoor performance filled with so much dramatic tensions.”
Today, we can still see the former head of the troupe Rong-Hui SUN busy helping around; however most of the administrative affairs and drama production have been handed over to Mr. Fu-Rui SUN, the family’s 2nd generation, making Yi Shin a Taiwanese Opera troupe that “ integrates traditions and modernity while never ceasing to improve its performances and ideas.”
Pierre Carlet de Marivaux
“Hazardous Games around Hearts and Arrows”
in a Taiwanese adaptation by HSU Po-Ang and SUN Fu-Ruei
Director: Lukas Hemleb
Playwright: Po-Ang HSU, Fu-Ruei SUN
Musical Score: CHEN Meng- Liang
Stage Design: WANG Yao-Chung
Video: LUO Shi-Hsiang
