Participating Works

“Big Nothing”

【Asia】
Dai Chenlian　(Beijing, China）

Ghost stories and childhood memories, a shadow-puppet theatre piece where dreams and reality intersect… What lies beyond the humor, the madness, and the nonsense ?

Combining childhood memories with “The Miscellaneous Morsels of Youyang”, a collection of stories from the Chinese Tang Dynasty era (9th century), “Big Nothing” is a shadow-puppet theater piece where personal memories and ghost stories, dream and reality cross over.
The 30 volume collection of stories, “The Miscellaneous Morsels of Youyang”, differ from many of the texts written in the period. These stories do not have morals, many seeming nonsensical. Some stories feature a mouth growing out of people’s arm and demanding food, while others are about a man turning into a pagoda. The stories were an important influence to Lu Xun, the father of Chinese modern literature, who cherished the collection and wrote similar strange stories himself, such as one about the spirit of a snake turning into a beautiful woman. Dai Chenlian grew up in Shaoxing city with his grandmother. In the play, the image of his grandmother begins to melt together with that of Lu Xun, who is also from the city of Shaoxing.
Dai Chenlian creates his own shadow puppets, sometimes becoming the resident of his own fictional world – A world where lighthearted humor can suddenly transform into something uncanny, and where the nonsensical creates new meaning.
 

“The Howling Girls”

【Oceania】
Sydney Chamber Opera　(Sydney, Australia）

The unconcealed voices of traumatized girls echo in this non-verbal opera

“The Howling Girls” is a non-verbal opera, that deals with the problem of trauma.  After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, 5 skinny girls visited a Manhattan hospital. Arriving to the hospital on separate occasions, all of the girls claimed that debris from the building and parts of dead bodies were stuck in their throats, preventing them to swallow. The doctors found contraction in the girls’ throats, but no sign of “debris”…
The piece begins from the image of these girls who suffer from trauma, and the history of “hysteria”.
From a feminist perspective, the symptoms of “Hysteria” where women utter voices unable to convey into words, is understood as an embodiment of patriarchal oppression.
In this piece, the embodied collective trauma speaks directly to our bodies through the voices of a Soprano singer and chorus, accompanied by the theremin and electronic music, gradually reaching catharsis. A unique event that is both primitive and futuristic, implies new possibilities of langage and gender."
 
Part One：Summoning (36 mins)
Part Two：The Blockage (2 mins)
Part Three：Howling (8 mins)
Part Four：Broken Aria (17 mins)
 

“La posibilidad que desaparece frente al paisaje（Possibilities that disappear before a landscape）”

【Europe】El Conde de Torrefiel　(Barcelona, Spain）

History, events, and life, flowing away, turning its back to life. A keen inquiry into “Daily life” and “Entertainment”

Men who lie naked in front of the Berlin holocaust memorial… what have they gathered here for?
“Possibilities that disappear before a landscape” is a theatre piece that is meant to be read and observed. In an empty space, fragments of stories set in 10 European cities are told through words on a screen and narration. 4 performers appear, and sometimes joyfully, sometimes with a sense of boredom, engage in activities that can seem unrelated to the stories told. El Conde de Torrefiel says that the concept of “Entertainment” that covers today’s society is a new form of totalitarianism. In a world where “enjoying” something gradually becomes an obsession, the possibilities of “history”, “life”, and “events” all disappear. Just like how nature eventually erases all traces of mankind’s acts.
 

“Mea Culpa”

【Africa】
Charles Nomwendé Tiendrebéogo　(Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso）

"Ghosts willing to reverse their fate, brought back to life through “Masks” A Physical Theatre piece that connects the roots of African culture with modern society"

When a tomb guard who dreams of a better life performs a ritual summoning dead spirits, he begins to be possessed by ghosts. The ghosts were all people of great influence when they lived in our world… Corruption, blood-stained battles over power, genocide… The spirits, who in their lifetime committed crimes led by ambition and materialism, borrow the gravedigger’s body in an attempt to clear their names. A solo performance that demonstrates the illness of contemporary Africa.
 

“Tú Amarás （You Shall Love）”

【Americas】
Bonobo (Santiago, Chile）

Extraterrestrials have arrived… Doctors thinking about “discrimination” in a conversation full of black humor

Chilean doctors are preparing a panel discussion in an international conference. The theme is “How to overcome discrimination”. In the recent years where extraterrestrial lifeforms known as Amenites have come to Earth as refugees, it is said that discriminatory treatment against these refugees is common among many medical practitioners. What creates violence? Can one love someone that is “other” to them? Questions examined closely through collective creation is posed humorously, ironically, and yet truthfully.
 

ⓒTAKE nob 

“Sokonaizu-Bottomless”

【JAPAN】dracom（OSAKA, JAPAN） 

Humorous voices and hours of vague despair tumble and fall from the bottom of tragedy

The end – or beginning – of the year. Two sisters lie quietly in their room. The two live in poverty, struggling from paying inheritance tax after their parents’ sudden death. The younger cannot bring herself to talk to her older sister, afraid to find out that she is dead.
The title “Sokonaizu” comes from the words “spoil” and “bottomless”, which are pronounced the same in Japanese, presented as a “zu” (=image). The theme is “Is it possible to starve to death in a metropolis?”. A humorous tragedy that portrays a vague despair.