华艺节 :: 'ART' by Godot Theatre Company

We're all familiar with 'ART' by French playwright Yasmina Reza. It's an observation about the complexities of friendship between three men, sparked by a heated discussion over the purchase of a piece of art, and if this piece is worth the price paid. Ultimately, it's about how much friendship is worth to you, and its intrinsic value. I was pleased to watch a production of it staged by Taiwan's Godot Theatre Company (果陀劇場) at Esplanade's Huayi Festival.

Directed by the Company's Artistic Director Liang Chi-Ming, this production stars popular celebrities Pu Hsueh-Liang (卜學亮), Chu Chung Heng (屈中恆) and Tseng Kuo Chen (曾國城). They took the respective roles as Marc (the supposed antagonist), Serge (the buyer of the painting) and Yvan (the supposed pacifist). But the English names have been changed to Chinese names. The blurb (written in simplified Chinese for the Singapore audience) explained,

“友谊”到底为何物？都是ART惹的祸！ 

是艺术？还是异数？   

《ART》跟艺术无关，跟朋友有关。 

你有没有朋友？我是说“真正的朋友” 

你在朋友眼中是什么样子？

I giggled quite a bit. WHAT IS ART ANYWAY. Recalling the recent works seen at ART SG, that 'lone boot stepping on a yellow balloon' placed on the floor boggled my mind. Did you see that boot? Whyyy. Hahaha. I wonder who bought the New York-based Taiwanese Huang Benrei's (黃本蕊)  fibreglass and stainless steel giant Yellow Rabbit (Nini 尼尼) simply titled 'Rainy Days Variation'. That was a really cheerful piece.

The matinee show included a birthday celebration for Tseng Kuo Chen. They said that it was his 55th birthday, and it felt apt to celebrate it since their three shows in Singapore were their 55th, 56th and 57th show. So I watched the final show, hence, the birthday cake to celebrate Kuo Chen's 55th. Okaaaaay. Ha! Apparently these are Taiwanese celebrities who are also household names in the entertainment circle, and host game shows and act in films and television series. Most in the audience obviously know them. I have seen their names around, but I don't know who they are. 

It's quite a brilliant adaptation by Godot Theatre Company. It was a two-hour and 15 minute performance without intermission. I enjoyed it immensely but, TBH, it was quite long. If they shortened it slightly to two hours that would have been ideal. The Chinese script is clever and full of puns that only Mandarin speakers understand. The humor was lost in the translated surtitles, I felt. It can't be helped. Some things are not able to be translated well to English.