Fu Hong Zheng’s signature piece Fight is back with a PLUS
2011 Festival OFF d’Avignon TOP 5 performance
Fight premiered at Festival OFF d’Avignon ten years ago and toured in many cities ever since, receiving high praise from a wide range of audiences. As a part of Director Fu Hong Zheng’s “Sport Series”, Fight depicts scenarios in life through sports games: An office lady who repeats a daily routine, swinging a ping-pong paddle mechanically; Three people get caught up in a three-pronged offence in a romantic relationship; A player who won the game but lost a friendship, etc. Extracting elements from sport, Fu created this theatre piece using the choreography of dramatic action and physical movement, mirroring sports in life and reflecting life through the analogy of competitions and games.
The special edition for the tenth anniversary enlists theater director, scholar, and critic Fu Yu-hui as dramaturge, and brings back several of the original cast to relive the spirit. The spatial design combines sports stadium and office, using the arrangement of fluorescent lighting and shadows to demonstrate the weariness and exhaustion of modern people who struggle to survive in an everlasting “fight” status.
As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu’s saying goes: Winners are powerful, while winning against oneself is strength. The director Fu underlines the force of softness as the primary concern in response to contemporary citizens pursuing success always with stress and frustration. Is this a war that will never end? What if we can find a course which surpasses success and failure? What if we acknowledge the true power of fragility?
Come and see the trajectory of your efforts and relinquish the fight (temporarily).
10th anniverary special edition TRAILER
A limited run at Wellspring Theater in Taipei from December 7 to 22, 2019.