Master/Monster

A deserted world is built inside the circus tent, with domestic-object wastes, dumped toys, trash from beaches, and plastic bags in various colors. The half-human-half-puppet animal characters have some part of their bodies attached to different objects as symbols of mutation, illuminated by transformative light as they emerge from the creepy but yet surrealistic world. The circus animals have been waiting for their master to come back, but it never happens. In their futile waiting, they make fun, they fight, they accuse each other, and eventually they experience the helpless desperation. The nonsense conversation is a disguise for a deeper concern for humanity. The animal-versus-master relationship is in fact the metaphor of need and dependence: the domesticized animals symbolize the humans prisoned by regime and authority, sometime even the excessive reliance on natural resources. The forgotten circus is a cruel stage where a battle of survival is taking place while all humans are part of it, playing the roles of disaster survivors who struggle to escape from the cage with mutated bodies.

Premiere: Oct. 30, 2014, Experimental Theater, Taipei
Playwright: Hong-yuan WANG
Director: Hong-yuan WANG, Chen-yu HUANG