2020 219 Experimental Theatre (Taiwan)
Director: Yi Xuan Gao
Photo; Yan Huai Liao, Pin Yu Zeng
"God Knows" is a fantasy or a dream of a mentally ill patient. The script presents the state of taking so many drugs, reality and illusion, life and death, dreams in the dream. From declination to reconciliation, we witness the love-hatred relationship between the main character, Shennong and the drugs.
"God Knows" not only portrays the mental appearance of a drug addict but also constructs a reason why modern people escape from reality and embrace virtual living conditions and psychological states instead. The performance is in Shennong’s perspective as his subjective lens. After sneaking into his brain and being stimulated by drugs, he develops a special perception that is usually suppressed and restrained, amplifying the variation of space and time, as if the body is living on the earth, but the spirit has fallen into the universe.
Director: Yi Xuan Gao
Photo; Yan Huai Liao, Pin Yu Zeng
"God Knows" is a fantasy or a dream of a mentally ill patient. The script presents the state of taking so many drugs, reality and illusion, life and death, dreams in the dream. From declination to reconciliation, we witness the love-hatred relationship between the main character, Shennong and the drugs.
"God Knows" not only portrays the mental appearance of a drug addict but also constructs a reason why modern people escape from reality and embrace virtual living conditions and psychological states instead. The performance is in Shennong’s perspective as his subjective lens. After sneaking into his brain and being stimulated by drugs, he develops a special perception that is usually suppressed and restrained, amplifying the variation of space and time, as if the body is living on the earth, but the spirit has fallen into the universe.
The Design Concept
The crack is where the light penetrates, hoping that we have the ability to pick up the pieces and put ourselves together after being broken.
Melancholia is like having holes in the heart, drugs flowing through it to cure the sadness. Therefore, the stage is actually the image of Shennong’s heart. The pure white and black holes create a clear contrast. The white also symbolizes the original purity of the heart, the cleanness and smoothness of the uninjured, and the human inner peace that we have been seeking. The scene on the upper left stage has a hole like a window, suggesting the pink room at the end of the script, from the initial clinic, home, to the final opening of the scenery, this space has always been the pink room with house number 448. In the end, Shennong, who is accustomed to living in illusions, is willing to return to reality? In the final scene, the scenery was opened, is represents to disillusionment created by the drugs. Ultimately, Shennong had to return to the reality he did not want to face.
Melancholia is like having holes in the heart, drugs flowing through it to cure the sadness. Therefore, the stage is actually the image of Shennong’s heart. The pure white and black holes create a clear contrast. The white also symbolizes the original purity of the heart, the cleanness and smoothness of the uninjured, and the human inner peace that we have been seeking. The scene on the upper left stage has a hole like a window, suggesting the pink room at the end of the script, from the initial clinic, home, to the final opening of the scenery, this space has always been the pink room with house number 448. In the end, Shennong, who is accustomed to living in illusions, is willing to return to reality? In the final scene, the scenery was opened, is represents to disillusionment created by the drugs. Ultimately, Shennong had to return to the reality he did not want to face.
The Design Progress
After "Twelve Angry Men", I reviewed my design, hoping to improve in this production. In addition to starting from the script, the design process also considered how the stage can cooperate with the performance, hoping to develop contemporary artistic expressions of dialogue between various stage forms and spaces. When space becomes an inseparable and vital part of a performance, stage design becomes very important. It integrates self-understanding of the script and the designer's perspective of the world into the design. However, they do not force the audience to accept it. The scenic design then becomes a medium, letting the audience have their own interpretation. The drama complete in the imagination and cooperation of the director, design, and audience. This is the concept of my design this time. The final stage design is an experiment based on this sequence of thoughts.
The scenery is constantly changing. I want to make the scene change to match the stage design, thus, I make the holes to fit the freezer and the bar. In the end, the bar can be disassembled and the double-sided freezer can be assembled into a platform. I want to simplify the complexity as much as possible to achieve the desired concise and clean space. The floor platform also opened grooves for planting them in line with the luxuriant flowers and plants.