The Way Back Review Excerpts-The Headless Body- The Way Back by The Double Theatre
Wu Meng-Hsuan (Taishin Arts Award Nominator)
Released on: ARTalks(https://talks.taishinart.org.tw/juries/wmh/2022082502)
“…The interplay of puppetry, lights, sound, dance and objects form the magical and poetic theatre narrative of The Way Back. The scenes with a northern feel (e.g. diesel train whistles, narrow streets) and costumes (e.g. long coats, hats and scarves running on the road) also seem to allude to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and even evoked my anxiety about the Taiwan Strait war from time to time. However, the play did not sensationally advocate the common feeling of suffering, nor did it become a spectacle to observe the suffering of others. Rather, The Way Back was a three-act structure (the body scattered, the search for the body, the return to home) with the motivations and relationships of the characters that have together rolled out the various dramatic scenarios. The classical structure not only gave itself a clear dramatic narrative but also appropriately restrained the emotional spillover that war was prone to. This allowed the story to continue based on the links between characters, rather than becoming humanistic preaching or indulging in the sensory bombardment of death, mutilation and explosions in war.”
21th Taishin Arts Award Quarter 3- Reasons for Nomination
Wu Meng-Hsuan (Taishin Arts Award Nominator)
“With variegated colours, delightful objects, rich soundscapes and poetic lights and shadows, The Way Back built up a process of reorganisation and return of body fragments in only 60 minutes, transforming what should be a brutal and serious war scene and plot into a smooth and bright theatrical narrative.
Not only was The Way Back highly integrated in terms of technique, but the “headless mutilated body” that ran through the entire play kept the play from falling into the clichés of war and identity politics. The play opened up the complexity and depth of children’s theatre productions, making it an eye-opening work overall.”
