On being human

THIS US$1 million festival has the "human condition" as its main theme this year, with the performances focusing on works that reflect each facet and phenomenon of mankind's inexhaustible desire to understand the meaning of existence.

Among this year's 11 plays are two international co-productions. The Metamorphosis, Android Version, first produced at the Autumn Festival in Normandy, will be restaged through a special collaboration between Taipei Arts Festival and five other international organisations.

There will also be a collaborative production of eXchange from Melbourne, Australia's Dance Massive Dance Festival, facilitating cultural interaction and the exchange of worldviews and arts aesthetics between the two cities' innovative generations.

Additional international performances include the prestigious Diebe from The Deutsches Theater, the French cirque nouveau performance Living!, Australian aboriginal music production dirtsong and Nanjing University's President's Invitation.

But it's Taiwanese art group's The Delusion Of Home that sounds intriguing - which features photographs of dilapidated houses along the riverside and seashore.

To get material, I-Tseng Chuang and Lan-Chuan Yen from Our Theatre x returned to places where the photos were taken, interviewed local residents, and adapted the material in a performance that discusses human beings and the environment.

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