Contemporary Legend Theatre (當代傳奇劇場) cofounder Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國) on Monday announced that the final performances in Taiwan of his acclaimed one-man show of William Shakespeare’s King Lear (李爾在此) would be in September and October.
“It has become physically challenging for me to do all 10 characters in the play,” Wu told a news conference at the National Theater in Taipei on Monday. “I hope some other actors will take up this role and carry it forward.”
Wu, now in his mid-60s, gave six performances of the play in Santiago, Chile, in January, and he and the company had planned their world premiere of Julius Caesar (凱撒) in the middle of March as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, but the COVID-19 outbreak forced the festival’s organizers to cancel all of the February and March shows.
Photo: CNA
Instead, Wu decided to perform King Lear at the National Theater in Taipei from Sept. 25 to 27 and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts on Oct. 3 and 4, as part of revisiting the troupe’s classic works.
He might still perform King Lear abroad, if invited, but he said he would prefer to coach someone who wants to learn the role.
Since its establishment in 1986, the company, known for its fusion of jingju (Beijing opera, 京劇) and Western theater, has created several adaptations of Chinese and Western classics, including a version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, entitled Kingdom of Desire (慾望城國); Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; productions in the style of xiqu (戲曲), or southern Chinese musical theater; and a rock opera trilogy based on the novel The Water Margin (水滸傳).
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