See the Wiz of Asian theater in a boundary-crossing performance!

What is on the other side of the sea?  Is it what we fear, or what we desire?


Red Demon is one of the most important works by the Japanese playwright Hideki Noda.  It has been translated to many languages and performed in various countries.  The play is set in a peaceful sea village.  One day, someone comes to the village.  Because he speaks a different language and shows a different culture, villagers call him the RED DEMON.  There is only one in the village, THAT WOMAN, who is willing to make friend with the red demon, but soon villagers accuses her of treason, calling her the red demon’s accomplice.  From THAT WOMAN’s perspective, we finally realize that the evil one is not the RED DEMON…

With its unique aesthetic style featuring cross-cultural vocabulary and poetic theatre in the Asian tradition, it is the first time for EX-Theatre Asia to include theatre artists from Taiwan, India, Japan, and Singapore.  We not only introduce the well-established contemporary Japanese play to Taiwan, but also invite Miyuki Kamimura, an avant-garde theatre artist in Japan best known for his physical technique, to play the RED DEMON, while the three young promising Taiwanese actors, Derrick Wei, Jasmine Wang, and Chen Yen-Pin will perform the three major roles while also changing into various minor characters on stage.  Hideki Noda’s clever use of language and the fast-paced tempo reveals humans’ fear as well as desire for the unknown world “on the other side of the sea.”  The similar island-country background between Taiwan and Japan also brings the text closer to Taiwan particularly as an immigrant society.  Red Demon’s collaborative production among four Asian countries demonstrates a cross-cultural Utopia beyond the culture barrier, which ironically reminds us how humans often alienate the aliens in the real world. 


*Pre-show talk
30 minutes before the performance in theater lobby on August 17(Sat), conducted in Chinese.

*Post-performance discussion
After the performance on August 18(Sun), conducted in Chinese.





Artistic Director and Director    Chongtham Jayanta Meetei
Born in Manipur, India, Chongtham Jayanta Meetei has been surrounded by various physical cultures such as traditional dance, martial art, and yoga.  Graduating from National School of Drama, New Delhi, with a major in acting, he advanced his studies in the Theater Training & Research Programme in Singapore and later came to Taiwan, continuing exploring a theatre style beyond the language barrier to touch the soul.  With his talent as a theatre story-teller, the solid training in both traditional and modern acting transforms the Asian classic, the Western realism, the post-modern physical theatre into his own unique contemporary theatrical aesthetics.  


Original Script    Hideki Noda
Creating a number of notable works, Hideki Noda was a favorite of the small-theater movement in the 1980s with his dramatic structures that leaped across time and space, his voluble wordplay, and the fast-paced liveliness of his performance style.  After a period of study in London, he established NODA MAP in 1993 and attracted considerable attention.  He has received numerous drama awards, including the Kishida Kunio Drama Award and the Asahi Performing Arts Award. He has also taken his work overseas, with the play Red Demon, for example, being performed in Thailand and the United Kingdom.




Performers    Miyuki Kamimura
With the training of physical method, Miyuki Kamimura has participated in many theatrical works, not only straight plays but many other collaborative works such as punk rock lives, dance performances, modeling and etc, and he has frequently worked with foreign directors, including the Taiwanese director Chen Hui Wen in Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis (2005) in Taiwan.  In 2002, Miyuki Kamimura entered TTRP in Singapore founded by late Kuo Pao Kun.  Later, he played several roles in Japan and productions in other countries and worked as a leader of Taichi and body training for the actors.




Performer    Jasmine Wang
Born in 1979 in ShinJu, grew up in Taitung, Taiwan.  With a passionate interest in dance from an early age, she joined Taitung Theatre in 1997 as an Executive Secretary and Actress.  Later, Wang studied in St. Louis, America in Dance and Theatre in 2000,and graduated with double B.A. degrees in both majors. Wang co-founded the Theatre Company of LeeQingZhao the Private with friends and produced productions throughout Taiwan and China. After she left the company in 2011, Wang started to work with different companies and has demonstrated great flexibility on stage.




Performer    Derrick Wei
As one of the most established young theatre artist in Taiwan, Derrick Wei has been devoted to combining personal experiences and public issues in the works such as the works The Woman in the Lane, Punishment, and Der Schönste Moment.  In addition to performing, Derrick started teaching mime in many workshops in 2006.   In the past two years, Derrick shifted focus on puppet with an attempt to explore the relationship between mime and puppet. In 2010, Derrick directed Little Child, a highly recommended puppet play in both Taiwan and other countries, in which he designed and made all the puppets.  




Performer    Yen-Pin Chen (Fangnas Nayao Pacilailai)
As an Amis born in Taitung, Chen Yen-Pin (Fangnas Nayao Pacilailai) is a director, actor, and playwright in theatre.  He has worked with established directors such as Yuhui Fu, Wang Chia-Ming, Li Shao-ping, Fu Hong-zheng, Lu Po-shen, and Lu Ai-Ling.  The theatre production he has participated in include Creative Society’s Playing the Violin, EX-Theatre Asia’s Monkey the Great!, the opera Carmen produced by NSO and National Theatre and Concert Hall, Ren-Shin Co-op Theatre’s Eurydice, M.O.V.E. Theatre’s Adidas 2010 Brand Day and Fight Me Now,  Tainaner Ensemble’s Der goldene Drache, and Black Dog Theater’s The Way We Move, and many others.  


EX-Theatre Asia
Founded by the Indian director Chongtham Jayanta Meetei and the Taiwanese actress Lin Pei-Ann in Miaoli, Taiwan, EX-Theatre Asia opens its vision to the whole Asia.  We work with talented theatre artists all over Asia, with the desire to explore a multi-cultural dialogue in theatrical expression and to establish a neo-classical performance style.  In recent years, several of our productions have been nominated by major art awards or invited to international art festivals.  Beyond the language barrier, EX-Theatre Asia indeed revitalizes the theatre in Taiwan with its unique cross-cultural performance style.



Original Script    Hideki Noda
Script Translator    Mu-ru Zhan
Produced by    EX-Theatre Asia
Producer    Pei-Ann Lin
Artistic Director, Director    Chongtham Jayanta Meetei
Stage Designer    Austin Mong-Chao Wang
Lighting Designer    Mohamed Fita Helmi
Costume Designer    Yu-Shen Li
Music Designer and Composer   Yi-Hui Chen
Makeup Designer    Hsiang-Han Hung
Prop Designer    Chao-Yuan Chen
Performers    Miyuki Kamimura, Derrick Wei, Jasmine Wang and Yen-Pin Chen (Fangnas Nayao Pacilailai)
Marketing Manager    Siraya Fei-lan Pai
Stage Manager    Hsiang-Ting Teng
Rehearsal Assistant    Tang-Cheng Liu
Production Assistant    Pei-Yu Huang
Commercial Film Director    Chen Shao-Wei
Inscription Artist    Li Jiun Yang
Sponsor    、
Photo Copyright© Shao-Wei Chen
Performance license of the play was arranged through NODA MAP
 

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