有關「都市變種劇場」計畫:
The “Metropolitan Metamorphosis Trilogy”
「我們都不再是個人了,只是集體的一部分......」
-詹明信(F.Jameson)
2015年始推出的「都市變種劇場」為本劇團的創團演出計畫,
首部曲為《集體恍惚(在她不吃香蕉以後)》,參演文化部基金會主辦之第八屆台北藝穗節,
首次參演得到四顆心與正面評論。
二部曲《水鳥樂園》則獲得一 五年文化部藝術新秀補助,於本年度六月演出。
「都市變種劇場計畫」涵蓋多部劇作,主以奇幻狂想、笑鬧奇異的方式,演譯後現代主義
哲學,以詹明信、尚布希亞、德希達、羅蘭巴特的論述,解釋當代世界被社群媒體、金錢
、商品符號、政治慾望、權力佔據的詭異現象。
述說著當代的年輕人,如何漸漸在都市變態與變形,逐漸過著非人的生活......
「我們都不再是個人了,都只是集體的部分......」
【計畫詳述】
「都市變種劇場」為涵蓋多部劇作之創作計畫,主以奇幻狂想之風格,演繹後現代主義哲學。
敘述當代都市生活中,人類身分的扭曲與變形。此一系列的作品主要呼應了後現代主義拋出的
存在議題,講述在媒體、意識形態、資本與物質、符號與語言的操縱下,人類思考如何漸進式
地趨同,意識如何被同化,個體如何消失,如何變形成單一集體的過程。
後現代主義學家詹明信指出,當代社會面臨的身分零散化的危機。由於影像與媒體的大量傳播
,過剩的資訊建構了虛擬世界,弱化了人對於真實的感知,個體的獨立思維也被單一和主流的
價值所取代。在這個科技化、全球化的時代,人類可以透過各種模式,建立不同的價值體系,
進而操控群眾的意識。本計畫正好探討這種異地幻遊、後現代精神分裂的症狀,希望透過戲劇
的方式,揭櫫當代社會對於這種身分困境的不自覺。
本計畫的首部曲《集體恍惚(在她不吃香蕉以後)》,主要討論商品拜物與網路成癮,以布希
亞擬象與擬象論為依歸,以後設劇場為型式,由一個導演的口吻講述一個女子如何因對香蕉成
癮,精神逐漸不正常的狀態。此劇曾參演文化部主辦之第八屆台北藝穗節,獲得四顆心之正面
評價。
本計畫二部曲《水鳥樂園》則獲得一 五年文化部藝術新秀補助,於本年度六月演出。此劇延
以後殖民主義,討論國家暴力與威權是如何被形塑,對於資本的渴求下,在從眾的現象中,人
類的身分如何扭曲。劇情敘述一群人對於水鳥樂園之想望與渴求,如何不擇手段的想從都市邊
緣躋身進入此一假想的烏托邦。
這個計畫以後現代主義思潮為主線,分別探討不同的身分問題使用不同的譬喻符號,象徵都市
人受到不同影響下的變形。主以笑鬧殘酷的戲劇形式,講述身分認同的議題,融入哲學思辨,
目的為啟發現代人對都市生活的省思,進而引發改變的可能。
The “Metropolitan Metamorphosis Trilogy” is an art project that covers several different but
related stage plays. It aims to explore the criticism brought by postmodernism on contemporary
society by representing three different mad fantasies. The story concerns different characters
who undergo profound changes of personal identities in modern city life. This series discuss
under the manipulation of media, ideology, capitalism and materialism, signs and languages,
how people’s consciousness is simulated, how the individuals gradually disappear and become a
single collective unity, echoing the existential issues brought by postmodernism. Through
presenting different dilemmas and exploring psychological changes, the trilogy attempts to
stimulate its readers and the potential theatre audience to think over their roles in their lives.
In his essay “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”, Fedric Jameson states that people’s
personal identities are fragmented in contemporary society. The mass production of images,
communication of media, the surplus of information and signs have constructed a virtual reality,
thus resulting in people’s dysfunction and inability to detect the reality. People nowadays are
losing their sense of time and space. Meanwhile, the independent thinking of the individuals is
gradually replaced by mainstream values. The hypnosis of collective consciousness has also
constructed a seemingly symptom of schizophrenia, which, here exclusively, refers to the split of
personal identities. The patients of schizophrenia usually are unable to distinguish the real from
the false. People in modern society are now facing a similar problem, not knowing who they are
and where they are.
In an era of technology and globalization, people are enabled to build different value systems
through multiple ways, and thus manipulating the consciousness of the majority. This art project
aims to explore this problem through the form of stage plays.
The first episode Collective Trance (after she stopped eating bananas) mainly discusses modern
people’s addiction of internet and the phenomenon of merchandise fetishism. Inspired by Jean
Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and simulacra, the artist presents a meatheatre in which a
director talks about how a woman becomes abnormal due to her addiction of bananas, a symbol
used in this play. This stage play was first produced in the 8th Taipei Fringe Festival, receiving a
four star honor and positive feedbacks.
The second episode of the project Waterfowl Paradise received the sponsorship from the New
Artist program in Ministry of Culture this year, due to be on theatre in June. This play borrows
the ideas from postcolonialism and discusses how national apparatus and authority is formed
and how people’s identities are distorted under their desires for capital and the bandwagon
effect. It tells a story of a group of people who dreams to enter an imaginary utopian world, the
Waterfowl Paradise, and attempts to go there by all means.
The final episode Go Hunt a Jackalope narrates a changing process of a man who fantasizes
himself as a jackalope, a mixed creature of two species, the rabbit and the deer. The jackalope, a
mythical creature originated in the urban legends in Northern America, is used as a symbol to
imply the mixed identities of western and eastern in contemporary world. The play mainly
explores people’s unawareness of the fading of their own culture and native languages.
Through these plays, different images of animals and the unanimated objects are utilized to
symbolize the profound changes, or the metamorphosis, urban people go through. Each of the
plays borrows certain ideas from postmodernism and discusses the issue of identity in different
ways.