1 Table 2 Chairs Experimental Series
Explorations on traditional and contemporary arts
One table / Two chairs / Twenty minutes / Two performers
The rules are simple, but the outcome is far from simple.
“One table two chairs” is the most basic staging used in traditional Chinese opera. When adapted by actors in their performance, the spatial possibilities are infinite. Every year, we invite artists from different background and disciplines to collaborate and present three new experimental works. These performances will explore the relationship between the traditional and the contemporary arts through their multi-disciplinary approach towards theatre.
This year makes the third instalment of this experimental series Liu Xiaoyi (Singapore) will direct Sun Yijun (Nanjing) and Zhao Yutao (Nanjing),, Eva Tang (Singapore) will direct Jo Kwek (Singapore) and Jodi Chan (Singapore), while Cai Bixia (Singapore) will direct Qin ZhanBao (Singapore) and Hung Chit-Wah, Felix (Singapore/Hong Kong).
Date: 17 – 20 July 2014
Venue: Creative Cube @ LASALLE College of the Arts
Festival: M1 Chinese Theatre Festival
Directors: Cai Bixia, Liu Xiaoyi, Eva Tang
Lighting Designer: Gabriel Chan
Cast: Sun Yijun, Zhao Yutao, Jo Kwek, Jodi Chan, Qin ZhanBao, Hung Chit-Wah Felix
Artist Notes (Danny Yung)
‘In a traditional play, one table and two chairs embody a deep significance. With a relatively simplistic theatre setting, a chair may depict a mountain, a bed, or perhaps a couch. Such is the most precious asset that has been preserved by tradition, and it is left to us to make what we can out of it. The significance of one table and two chairs is precisely because it is a dialogue with no hierarchy, a conversation between tradition and contemporary. If we were to merely place one table and two chairs on stage, thereafter filling it in with a performance, there is no artistry in that. Instead, let us examine how these performances conceptualise one table and two chairs, what happens in those twenty minutes, and what the two actors would do on stage – all of which are conventions herein. Conventions are necessary in creative work. Through conventions, we will gain an insight into what happens within convention, outside of convention and the boundaries of it. With this insight, we can understand our own stories, the history of the stage, and the world beyond; one table two chairs is one such convention.’