A musical titled Don’t Cry, Dancing Girls (勸世三姊妹) premiered in Taipei yesterday, dramatizing rituals traditionally associated with funerals in Taiwan, the theater company presenting the show said.
A star-studded preview of the musical was held on Friday evening at the Taipei Performing Arts Center, with film directors Wang Shau-di (王小棣) and Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), as well as actor Welly Yang (楊呈偉) among those attending, VMTheatre said in a statement.
First staged at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in early January, the musical tells the story of three siblings’ return to their hometown of Huwei Township (虎尾) in Yunlin County, and their efforts to reconcile with their past, including their abandonment by their heavily indebted father.
Photo courtesy of National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts via CNA
Their father was a Taoist priest who, along with his wife, carried out traditional rituals such as singing, dancing and storytelling at funerals or the day before, which are believed to help lead the soul of the dead through the underworld and into the dignified world of the Western Paradise in Pure Land Buddhism, VMTheatre said.
Although the family business had closed, the three siblings are asked by an ill relative to perform the soul-guiding ritual after he dies. During the process of learning the rituals, the siblings also gain insight into their family history. The musical ends with them performing the rituals for their father.
Before the script was written, director Tseng Hui-cheng (曾慧誠) and the production team carried out extensive research, attending several soul-guiding rituals to better understand the traditions, VMTheatre said.
Some of those experiences were incorporated into the musical, in reflection of Taiwanese culture, Tseng said in the statement.
Nine shows are scheduled at the Taipei Performing Arts Center from yesterday to July 9, the theater group said.
The performances are in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mandarin, with Chinese and English subtitles, according to VMTheatre, which has been selected by the National Culture and Arts Foundation for the “Taiwan Top” subsidy program for the past three years.
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