Cool
A Paper Tiger Theater Production
Co-production: Zuercher Theater Spektakel
January, 2007 at Caochangdi Workstation, Beijing (as a work in progress)
May, 2007 at Nine Theater, Beijing (premier)
July, 2007 at HEBBEL AM UFER, Berlin
August, 2007 at Zuercher Theater Spektakel, Zurich
September, 2008 in “Fringe” Festival/Shanghai
March, 2009 in Hong Kong Arts Festival
June, 2010 in Singapore Arts Festival
ABOUT THE WORK
The original idea of this performance came from our early education and memories of growing-up which were filled with violent experiences. And the violence was usually sanctioned legally and even became a trendy fashion.
The culture of “torture” (kùxíng) and being cool (kù) is the motive which made us to create this drama-<Cool>. This culture mixed the paradoxical factors in human nature—such as cruelty and joy, primitive bloodiness and civilized elegance. What’s more, the mediocre feel about reality, in which you cannot see either the past or the future, is also an important motive.
When we look up the Chinese equivalent of “cool” in the Chinese dictionary, we find words like cold, cruel, deep degree, extremely; and in the English dictionary we find: fairly cold, calm, impudent. But Cool as a slang word has a totally different meaning: pleasant, bravo. This completely opposed feel is one of the ways how we understand the world, and it’s the creative method of the drama.
In <Cool>, we focused on the abundant ritual feeling and performance style of “torture” (kùxíng), the conflict between power/ lust/ character/ rule/ progress, the absurdity and elegance when people act violently.
Co-production: Zuercher Theater Spektakel
January, 2007 at Caochangdi Workstation, Beijing (as a work in progress)
May, 2007 at Nine Theater, Beijing (premier)
July, 2007 at HEBBEL AM UFER, Berlin
August, 2007 at Zuercher Theater Spektakel, Zurich
September, 2008 in “Fringe” Festival/Shanghai
March, 2009 in Hong Kong Arts Festival
June, 2010 in Singapore Arts Festival
ABOUT THE WORK
The original idea of this performance came from our early education and memories of growing-up which were filled with violent experiences. And the violence was usually sanctioned legally and even became a trendy fashion.
The culture of “torture” (kùxíng) and being cool (kù) is the motive which made us to create this drama-<Cool>. This culture mixed the paradoxical factors in human nature—such as cruelty and joy, primitive bloodiness and civilized elegance. What’s more, the mediocre feel about reality, in which you cannot see either the past or the future, is also an important motive.
When we look up the Chinese equivalent of “cool” in the Chinese dictionary, we find words like cold, cruel, deep degree, extremely; and in the English dictionary we find: fairly cold, calm, impudent. But Cool as a slang word has a totally different meaning: pleasant, bravo. This completely opposed feel is one of the ways how we understand the world, and it’s the creative method of the drama.
In <Cool>, we focused on the abundant ritual feeling and performance style of “torture” (kùxíng), the conflict between power/ lust/ character/ rule/ progress, the absurdity and elegance when people act violently.