Monkey King at Spider Cave

A dreamlike journey of shadow images of Monkey King legend beyond time and space

The Puppet and Its Double was honored to work with Larry Reed, an expert of Shadow Theater, from 2004. For three years in a row, Mr. Reed helped with Taiwanese artists to explored multiple threads of thought and composed a contemporary Shadow Theater that mixed drama play, literature, and cinematic aesthetics. In this play, a screen over ten meters was installed on the stage along with a juxtaposed performance of real-life actors and puppets. Such was a pioneer presentation in Taiwan. The images on the screen are organized to articulate the visual beauty and symmetry as well as to manage the specific dramatic tension of the Chinese classic “Journey to the West”. We also experiment the effects such as: ink brush painting; the fade-in and fade-out of various scenes by the maneuver of lighting; real persons in special shadow mask as puppets. On the screen, one scene runs after another like an awesome experience of a wonderful animation.

Premiere (international): Oct. 20, 2006 / Center for Performing Arts, San Jose, USA
Premiere (Taiwan): March 9, 2007 / National Taiwan Arts Education Center, Taipei
Dramaturgy: Fu-chin CHIANG
Director: Larry Reed (USA)