The Beauty of Taiwanese Puppet Theatre
Museu da Marioneta
5, 6 June at 10pm
7 June at 3.30pm
ARTISTIC DIRECTION/TECHNIQUE Wu Shanshan
PUPPETEERS Huang Wushan and Lai Shi-an
MANAGING DIRECTOR Robin Ruizendaal
TECHNIQUE Taiwanese traditional hand puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/7
LANGUAGE Without words
TIME 45 minutes
The 79 year-old puppet master Chen Xihuang is the most celebrated puppeteer in Taiwan. He started performing puppet theatre at the age of thirteen with the famous puppeteer Li Tianlu. His great-grandfather was a teacher of the emperor at the court in Peking. At the present the master still lives in an apartment in his great-grandfather’s huge traditional mansion in Taipei. Over a period of 60 years, Chen developed and improved the traditional glove puppet theatre performance technique and raised it to unprecedented levels. He performed in over 30 countries around the world and his versatility, background and personality make him a unique character in the Taiwanese arts.
During the show the audience will see the delicate movements of the main characters, such as the young lady, the scholar, but also the clowns and the villains, as well as exciting fighting scenes. In this fascinating theatre performances we will experience the virtuosity of Taiwanese puppet performance.
The company Taiyuan Puppet Theatre was founded by Paul Lin in 2001. The company performs traditional puppet theatre while finding new and creative ways to further enhance the skils of puppeteers such as Chen Xihuang, as well Taiwanese puppet carvers, designers and writers. The company is based at the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet theatre Museum in Dadaocheng, the old centre of Taipei. Robin Ruizendaal his their creative director, script writer, designer and a researcher with a ph.D. in sinology on Chinese marionette theatre, and director of the the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet theatre Museum. The company has performed in over twenty countries around the world, in many different venues, such as the Purcell Room and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Casa Mila in Barcelona, the Traditional Opera House in Hanoi, but also in the countryside of Cambodja and Central and South America, and of course, in streets and theatres of old Taipei.