The Soup of Reincarnation—2018 Taiwan Traditional Theatre Festival

Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company

Date:2018.04.06
Venue:Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center (Experimental Theatre) 

Comments on the Finalist

Whereas Yang Li-Chou’s documentary, Father, induces anxieties about preserving the heritage of hand puppetry in Taiwan, The Soup of Reincarnation highlights the spirit of hand puppetry, which is to evolve with the times for survival. Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company collaborates with Cheng Chia-Yin, Director of Puppet and Its Double Theater, and creates a work that allows traditional puppetry and modern puppetry to reflect each other’s brilliance, and interprets the invisible time with visible “puppets.” The work masterfully merges the dissimilar spatiality of puppetry stage and that of the theatrical black box, establishing a realm that blends life with death and overlaps virtuality with reality. With Meng Po as a guiding character, the work reenacts the tragic and fateful reincarnations of female characters, including Wang Bao-Chuan, Pan Jin-Lian and Bai Su-Zhen, in traditional texts while subtly speaking out for women’s insignificance in this traditional art form. Moreover, the musicians’ expressive music, self-restraining yet lastingly reverberating, adds a genious touch to the already exquisite and rich theatrical aesthetics.

 (Commentator: Siraya PAI)

Artwork Introduction

One of the artistic features that characterizes Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company is its interpretation of historic stories through female perspectives, which is what the theatre company has done in The Soup of Reincarnation. The work reinvents classic characters in the tradition of puppetry and gives them new lives. The story begins with Meng Po, who resides by the river Lethe in the underworld. Through her eyes, the audience learn the stories of three classic female characters, Wang Bao-Chuan, Pan Jin-Lian, and Bai Su-Zhen, and witness how tears are turned into the symbol of oblivion and rebirth, as a way to recount these women’s emotional upheavals and discontent with fate. The monologues of the three female characters, along with the puppeteers’ expressions of their own feelings, are deconstructed and reconstructed into a story interwoven with both facts and fiction. The theatre company has specially invited the artistic director of Puppet and Its Double, Cheng Chia-Yin, to direct this production, the modern playwright and director, Chiang Fu-Chin, to write the script, the Singaporean theatre technology director, Helmi Fita, to design the lighting, and Liang Meng-Han to design the puppets. Combining puppetry narration, puppeteering and Beiguan music with modern features like wide cloak, mobile platform and theatrical lighting, the work unveils a new direction of contemporary puppetry.

About the Artist

Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company
Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company is a rare Taiwanese theatre company run by three generations of one family. Its founder, Chiang Szu-Mei, is the first female Taiwanese palmar puppeteer and is still creating works and performing at eighty-six years of age. Her son Ko Chia-Tsai, who inherits Chiang’s skills and is an important palmar puppeteer, has been writing, directing and performing palmar puppetry works for over five decades. The family’s third-generation, Ko Shih-Hung and Ko Shih-Hua, have learned and mastered the art of puppetry, and dedicated themselves to promote the beauty of Taiwanese puppetry by participating in domestic and foreign art festivals and puppetry programs, seeking new opportunities for Taiwanese puppetry through the encounters of the modern and the traditional from both the East and the West. In recent years, their experiments on interdisciplinary and cross-media performances have received much praise. Today, the three generations of the family are still endeavoring in promoting the local culture of puppetry and creating excellent works.

Production Team

Drama Artist Consultant | Chiang Szu-mei
Drama Consultant | Ko Chia-Tsai
Director | Cheng Chia-Yin
Playwright | Ching Fu-Chin, Ko Shih-Hing
Lighting Design | Helmi Fita
Sound Design | Chiang Ching-Hsing
Aria Arrangement | Wu Ya-Ting
Production Carpenter | Cheng Sheng-Wen
Puppet Design | Liang Meng-Han, Ko Shih-Hung, Ko Shih-Hua
Performer | Ko Shih-Hung, Ko Shih-Hua, Liu Yu-Jane
Musician | Chiang Ching-Hsing, Wu Ya-Ting, Liu Chao-Hung
Stage Crew | Hsu Yu-Ling, Lia Wei-Yu
International Administration Coordination | Su Wei-Jeune
Marketing Materials Design | Ou Chia-Jui

藝術家對談

導演 鄭嘉音(左), 編劇 柯世宏(右)

民俗信仰中,「孟婆」長年駐守奈何橋,在地府出入之界取忘川水熬湯。靈魂從幽冥邁向人世之際,一飲孟婆湯,記憶悲喜褪去,前塵惘惘,死生兩忘。這掌握轉世之鑰的傳奇人物,是真快樂掌中劇團《孟婆.湯》裡的靈魂人物,串起劇中女性的愛憎怨嗟,陰陽幻化間,又隱喻布袋戲演師掌中人生。

女性觀點演繹新貌

真快樂掌中劇團由台灣第一代女演師江賜美創辦,現年86歲的她在男性主導領域開闢天地,以女性觀點詮釋歷史劇目成為劇團特色;她帶領的「非典型」戲班維持開放,無門派歸屬亦鬆綁師徒制與家族傳承,現今第三代的柯世宏、柯世華雖從小浸潤,卻在退伍後才正式決定入行,更以西方偶戲訓練與跨媒材的演出形式,為布袋戲帶來新貌。

劇團近年跨界已有前例,《孟婆‧湯》更非與導演鄭嘉音的首度合作。鄭嘉音與柯世宏是多年好友,前後於美國學習西方偶戲。鄭嘉音創立無獨有偶工作室以來,柯家兄弟多次參與演出;2005年,鄭嘉音曾以《戲海女神龍》向江賜美女士致敬;2013年,真快樂劇團的《母子情深─薛剛樊梨花》也由鄭嘉音執導。

回顧《孟婆‧湯》誕生,柯世宏表示,最初動念製作與「鬼」有關故事,與鄭嘉音討論後,決定以「孟婆」為引,重現經典女性角色。他說,孟婆賦予靈魂新生,近似布袋戲演師,「演師下戲第一件事是把戲偶所有衣服脫掉,隔天到另一場地搬演另一齣戲,可能同樣戲偶又被穿上不同服裝,演另一齣故事、新的人生。」毛遂自薦執導的鄭嘉音則觀察,常以男性英雄為主角、女性為附屬的布袋戲,少有女性題材,借此機會,可一次呈現女性不同面貌。

於是,《苦守寒窯十八年》癡等夫君的王寶釧,《武松打虎》追求自我的潘金蓮,《水漫金山寺》對抗天道的白素貞,在劇中成了同位女性的靈魂輪迴,死後於冥川邊與孟婆喟嘆前世,被賦予轉世機會,流下的淚水化作「湯」,成為遺忘重生的符號。柯世宏、柯世華更將自身家族戲班故事化做獨白穿插戲中,戲劇與真實、戲偶與演師、舞台與人生之間,界線不斷轉換交錯,解構再拼貼。

傳統現代的虛實交錯

有了故事軸線,編創團隊在傳統架構下注入現代元素:布袋戲偶面孔雕刻與衣著,和用現代戲偶面具呈現的孟婆,在不同風格間尋求視覺調和。音樂設計將電子聲響融入北管樂曲,強化空間與戲劇感,也與後場樂師的傳統即興「活戲」融合,讓樂手與台上演員共同呼吸。唱曲編寫則保留北管曲牌,但同有官腔漢語與閩南語並存的開放。

口白、戲偶、音樂、文本等元素保留傳統,舞台視覺卻大破舊有佈署。固有彩樓移除,改以移動式平台與演師一同流動,也讓觀眾看見演員操偶神情姿態。鄭嘉音說明,舞台打破偶戲框架,是為呈現演師搬演他人人生的「戲中戲」,也讓觀眾看見演師的情感澆灌,但仍有移動平台作為表演聚焦及行走空間。演繹孟婆的劉毓真,另以大面斗篷布料現身,隨情節幻化為洞穴、流水、風等元素,時而成為戲偶舞台。「這契合東方劇場的物件運用,如京劇裡的一桌二椅,或印尼皮影戲代表所有自然現象的『生命之樹』。」萬物有情、一物多用的寫意表現,另呈現於舞台一角水盆,演員演出前用盆中水淨身,演出中亦有水滴不斷滴落,借指夢婆之「湯」,既為淨化,也隱喻時間流轉。柯世宏補充,「淚水」是故事註解,孟婆湯讓一切再生,隨角色蛻變、成長、受苦而累積,「當演出燈暗,湯也就熬好了。」

傳統戲劇演師詮釋他人故事,「自己」反而隱身,鄭嘉音決定將戲班故事帶入,並讓柯家兄弟穿上灰色掛袍現身台前。「布袋戲街頭演出常有雜音干擾,演師敘事參雜摩托車聲與喧鬧,如人生吉光片羽,因此希望在故事間從台前旋轉到幕後,讓觀眾感受布袋戲準備自己的過程——隨劇情角色,演師口白、口氣、聲音要變,戲偶使出武功時,也會影響演師表情、律動與身體狀態。」台前幕後,孟婆讓角色輪迴,而演師將手套入布袋戲的時刻,就是一次新的人生風景。

台前現身是柯家兄弟初次經驗,柯世宏笑說,「從小訓練都是躲在舞台後,演出時不管三七步、身體歪斜,只要把布袋戲演好就好了。所以當導演把東西撤走,我馬上想:『那我這麼大的身軀要藏在哪?』」人偶線條優美並存要歷經鍛鍊,「但感覺、『氣』對了,身形就會美好。最後我乾脆跟著劇情:布袋戲怎麼走,就跟著怎麼做。」劇中兄弟對話揭露戲班艱辛,也讓兩人重啟多年回憶。他因此認為,《孟婆‧湯》在傳統戲劇的架構中,為布袋戲劇團一片片補上真正的「肉」:「觀眾接觸到的不再是單一故事,而是布袋戲全面——是真真實實、台灣一個戲班的故事與感受。」他引述江賜美觀戲評語,「演戲的人,最重要是跟觀眾有流動。⋯⋯看戲的時候,下面跟上面的人的呼吸連結在一起,便正發生一件好的事情。」

《孟婆‧湯》隱喻家族戲班經營,被設定為首部曲,劇團下個作品《一丈青》將以水滸女將扈三娘故事,演繹戲班「入江湖」本事。流動與開放是契機開始,演戲觀戲、台上台下、傳統當代、藝術工作者與所處世代間,或者均是如此。《孟婆‧湯》見證,手把手的表演藝術,自老藝師向年輕世代傳承,而承襲珍貴技藝的後輩,又從自身所在,對家族歷史給予深情回望。

(採訪撰文/許祐綸)