Arrayed across the room are a storage jar, a cupboard, a table and chairs painted black. Rain-capes, rice-paddy hats and masks hang along the cement wall. A spirit tablet to the god of drama occupies one corner, lending an air of the supernatural. This is the place they call in Taiwanese "Corner Store," Unique Theatre's unique headquarters up a hillside in Mucha.

Among the numerous fringe theater groups in Taiwan, Unique Theater has earned a name for its pioneering spirit. Though lacking the box-office appeal of some more mainstream companies, the range of skills and breadth of interests that they bring to their work gives them an edge over other experimental groups. They describe themselves as 'native culture workers,' and like to maintain a homegrown Taiwan style in the way they dress, and the place they work. Yet they are committed to the language of Western drama, and have stimulated audiences through their physical intensity and animated occupation of the performance space.

How well do 'native culture' and modern drama go together? It is a deliberately thought-challenging idea. To understand Unique's drive in this direction, one needs to know something of group founder Liu Ching-min,and her mentor the Polish drama guru Grotowski. Liu started out with Lan Ling Theater, and made an impact with her spirited performance in the title role of the play Ho-Chu Hsin-P'ei. Known to her friends as studious and hardworking, Liu traveled to study drama at New York University, and participated in a program of Grotowski's called 'Objective Drama.' During it they used elements drawn from ethnic ritual as a way to revive sensations and abilities stifled under civilization, and reawaken natural consciousness. Returning to Taipei after a year's exposure to the world, Liu says she felt like "a different species . . . no longer the 'Ho-Chu' character of before." Observing the change in herself, she wanted to put what she had learned of Grotowski's teaching into practice, but came up against walls wherever she tried.

Yearning to study again with the master, she made trips to France and Italy, in between which she formed Unique Theater with three other actors. But the old spirit from the period of study in New York had gone, and one day the thought struck her: "I'm from Taiwan. . . ." This time she returned with a head full of plans and a desire to trace her cultural roots. Rehearsal was already under way for the group's debut production, Faust, Notes From the Underground.

"We charged ahead without worrying that its themes were very different from our own experience," admits Liu now. Nevertheless, the show ran for a month at the 30-seater Corner Store. The good reception it had was not to divert the group from its original intentions, and at the end of the run, the Su ("tracing backwards") Project was born.

Liu comments: "We cannot escape the fact that we were born and bred here in Taiwan, but at the same time that our roots go back to ancient China." Thus she came up with a method that they call "learning from the old ways," combining Taiwanese folk ritual and artistry with traditional Chinese disciplines such as ch'i kung breathing, ta'i chi shadow boxing, and swordplay, to create a "new Taiwan culture." Liu firmly denies that this is a typical case of getting back to tradition. As proposed in a grant application submitted to the Council for Cultural Planning and Development, the aims of the project are twofold: to preserve folk customs through the medium of drama; and to borrow from tradition to create modern Chinese drama. The plan additionally included the intention to stage productions at the National Theater's Experimental Theater, at the venue in Mucha, and at open-air spots all round the island.

It has turned out to be a rather long-term project. Preparation during phase one took them out among temple celebrations and street festivals, videotaping stilt walkers, ritual striding giants, lion dances, and puppet-operas, and also brought them as far a field as Kweichow on the mainland in search of rites to learn from. Additionally, a series of seminar son "Chinese body, thought, and culture" was arranged in collaboration with the China Times newspaper. When the fruit of their efforts eventually came to the stage at the Experimental Theater, audiences were treated to a strong whiff of sacred ritualism, with the actors in temple garb and masks, amid giant figures and funerary wailing.

The second phase of the project brought a complete change of mood. Ch'i-Tsai Creek Sweeps Across the Land is a lively open-air show incorporating stilt-walking, hip-swinging female accompaniment, melancholy rural singing, and touches of Taiwan opera. Before one performance, at Ching An Temple near Tainan, the actors became caught up in the local thrice-yearly all-night festival, and paraded the streets amid worshippers and the smoke of firecrackers until well past dawn, only then pitching stage and mounting the show. "Performing open-air you get to experience audience reaction much more directly than in a dark auditorium," says troupe member Wang Jung-yu.

Unlike Performance Workshop and Screen Theater, two well-known professional companies, Unique's members are mostly college students giving over their spare time, although the group does now include six full-time members. They also bring different past experience with them, some having grown up in the countryside, some in the city, and not all having a Taiwanese--as opposed to mainland--family background. Liu Ching-min herself had a typical upbringing on a military estate, kept totally apart from native Taiwan culture. Now she struggles word by word to master Taiwanese. Liu Shou-yao whose family is Hakka, also admits difficulty with the language, but is not worried, remarking: "This is not my goal in life, just a stage. I don't expect to spend all my days in theater. The questions and experience get stored inside for reflection, so that one day I will find my own way."

In addition to current group members drawn by the folk appeal of the Suproject, Unique includes some with special interest in anthropological field-work and social causes, as well as those with a simple love of performing, and those who come to "find" themselves. It is the latter two of these reasons which most apply to Wang Jung-yu, formerly a straightlaced nine-to-five computer technician until he stepped into Unique's subversive little world. Tan Chang-kuo was a National Taiwan University philosophy major at the time he joined, and is now doing postgraduate study in anthropology, which fact, as he says, "is not unconnected with the influence Unique has had" on him. In fact for Tan, performance is only one part of the group's activities, with his personal emphasis being on developing physical awareness, and the gathering and collating of information from field-trips. Such aspects of the group's work are where Grotowski's notion of 'paratheater' can be witnessed.

Film critic and company member Huang Chien-yeh feels the same. For him, an important attitude at Unique is that performance is not the sole aim, and it is not expected that everyone should go their own way after the show. "There is" he says, "an almost religious devotion to the task of bringing theater into real life."

Thanks to the effort put in by the casts in getting back to roots, the two plays in the Su project were highly interesting and unusual. But the-overall style is still far from Chinese. The Western influence is visible to audience in several respects, from the borrowing of avant-garde physical technique and mise-en-scene, to the lighting and use of acting space. Indeed, change in dramatic form presents some difficulties for Unique. During early rehearsals for Ch'i-Tsai Creek, the actors, especially those with longer experience at Unique, had trouble shaking off habits of avant-garde physical expression that were not right for a work that ended up more in the mold of traditional realism. Lack of time is another handicap:

"Originally we hoped to spend time with the local people, ideally a week in each place we performed, living with them and making real contact, so getting to know the culture. Limitations of time and money put paid to that idea though. The actors are in too much of a hurry to take much in, what with setting up the stage, having a quick look around, then making-up and performing," according to Chen Ming-tsai. "I began to feel doubts about our acting attitude, as it all became rather routine." Furthermore, the actors did not have time to master folk skills before trying them out on stage, although aware that they were not really experienced enough. Chen says that in perspective "it was good that there was so much possibility for exploration, but equally, we lacked the skill to put it all together."

Brushing aside such self-criticisms, outsiders like Cho Ming, a founder of Lan Ling, believe that Unique Theater is the company most worth going to see in Taiwan today. "They have the fundamental abilities of control over body and space, and better than most fringe companies avoid the pitfall of having too much "concept," instead of actual performance. Ialso back their attempt to get theater off the shelf and back into real life." Examples of this would be their decrying of environmental pollution, in Ch'i-Tsai Creek, and their support for social movements, giving public performances during the student protests of last March, and at rallies for the homeless.

There are those however who raise basic doubts about the direction Unique is moving in. Stan Lai, head of drama at the National Institute of the Arts, says: "Studying the Grotowski way is a little like taking monastic vows. When it comes to expression, you have limited your appeal to a small minority only. Yet if Unique Theater is to raise awareness about environmental protection and other issues, then it needs to popularize itself and that way create some contradictions."

To Chen Wei-cheng, artistic director of the Ren-Tzu Theater, who has undergone training with Grotowski and served for two years as the master's personal secretary, human nature is the same all over despite cultural dissimilarities among peoples. By merely sticking to the differences between cultures, or even attempting some sort of transcendental level, drama cannot probe to the heart, and one is left with little more than form.

Liu Ching-min insists that the return to native culture is only the objective of the current phase, and that ultimately they will find a deeper source of motivation. But for the present she feels that acquiring experience in different forms is the best preparatory work. The third phase of the project, training and performing at the hillside base, is in tune with this direction they are following.

It remains to be seen whether Unique can find a course for themselves that takes them among other companies and lets them share some kind of common current. But it is something that many in the drama world, as well as in the company itself, are hoping for.

Wang Mo-lin, film critic, puts it well when he says: "Unique Theater has already caused a cultural phenomenon, because they have raised important questions. Whether or not you approve of them, you cannot ignore them."

[Picture]

Performances by Unique Theater

[Picture Caption]

Ch'i-Tsai Creek Flows Over the Land. Unique Theater putting on a wild display.

The Death of Chung K'uei, an old tale told as modern satire. (photo by P'an Hsiao-hsia)

Rigorous physical training sets Unique Theater apart from other fringe companies. Actors making a 3-day hike across hills to Mingshan Monastery in Ilan. (photo by P'an Hsiao-hsia)

Even simple actions involve physical expression for the actors.

Off the stage, promoting environmental protection.

(Middle) Stilt walking, one of the troupe's special skills.

Performing open-air without a stage.

(Right) The audience lingers after a show. Unique Theater's Su project s till has a long way to go.

The Death of Chung K'uei, an old tale told as modern satire. （photo by P'an Hsiao-hsia）

Rigorous physical training sets Unique Theater apart from other fringe companies. Actors making a 3-day hike across hills to Mingshan Monastery in Ilan. （photo by P'an Hsiao-hsia）

Even simple actions involve physical expression for the actors.

（Middle） Stilt walking, one of the troupe's special skills.

Off the stage, promoting environmental protection.

Performing open-air without a stage.

（Right） The audience lingers after a show. Unique Theater's Su project s till has a long way to go.