Fringe in Taiwan, more than fringe in many of the countries where I’ve seen Fringe shows, seems to be much more about young up-and-coming artists. Tonight’s show, however struck me with its maturity. That is not to say that the cast of two characters, one man and one woman, is old. On the contrary, both actors played students (high school? university?). But it was obvious from their performances that even though they’re not that old in age, their experience has aided them in creating intense and powerful characters on stage.
It also struck me leaving the café after tonight’s performance that as a non-native Chinese speaker, my tools for understanding Mandarin communication contrast in many ways with director Q-Chang’s tools. He relies primarily on sound and spoken word, whereas I’m used to utilizing visual cues to make up for my occasional lack of Mandarin vocabulary. As theatre artists, however, we must rely on both visual and audial cues in balanced measure.
Therefore, especially in the first half of the show when the play’s dialogue seemed to be much more like poetry with tints of Theatre of the Absurd, I had some difficulty jumping with the actors through the different characters, times and spaces they were inhabiting, and I wondered if I was not the only one. The female actor, Yu-Ling Teng, embodied a couple of different characters in her performance, versus the one character her male counterpart Wen-Hao Chang played. As I wrote above, both are skilled actors, and I especially appreciated Teng’s ability to use the expressiveness of her face to mark changes in character and emotion. However, the play would still have been helped with the aid of lighting, costume, or blocking changes that would have given a clearer indication of the plot and characters.
Finally, a note on the topics presented in this piece. One of the keywords under Unbalanced in the Fringe program was gender. My impression of the play’s themes focused not so much on gender and much more on sexuality. As an artistic commentary on the challenges and conflicts young gay men in Taiwan face, the play generally succeeded. The small performance space, in particular, added to the intimacy that is so often needed when presenting issues of sexuality oppression to a mixed audience. As such, for me at least, while the show’s beginning was more difficult to connect with because of its abstract and visually-bare style, the latter half moved me with its rawness, tenderness, and directness.
I enjoyed the piece more as it went along, and thank 68 Theatre for its presentation.
其它意見：The size and intimacy of the performance space is a positive thing for this play. If the play is performed again in the future, remember to try keeping the intimacy that Cafe, Electrician (水電咖啡) naturally provides.
It may also help for the director to have a trusted assistant director to aid in maintaining visual consistency and imagery during the rehearsal process.
The script is both interesting and musical in its rhythm, timing and repetition of lines. Sometimes, however, this can make the play feel longer than it is, and seems to take away from the main goal and themes of the play. Going through the play for more re-edits may help to create more consistency.
演出場地：水電咖啡