'The Village' is a heart-rending production by writer/director Stan Lai, based on true stories shared by Wang Wei-Chung.
The play tells stories of a 50-year chapter in Taiwan’s history from a personal perspective, with the focus on the lives and relationships of those involved. It also includes an ample dose of humour, which strikes a nice balance with the more sad or philosophical moments. It makes light of the messiness of their situation, such as one of the characters not being understood by anyone, shown by his subtitles appearing as nonsense symbols. Only many years later does everyone realise that no one else understood him either, because they had all pretended to. The stories of the people involved are rich with emotion, evoking the tearing of displacement and the frustration of being trapped and forced to create a new home in a place not of their choosing. It follows the unrelenting hope of the families that the Republic of China will take back control, and the disappointment that follows every let down.
The extreme grief the characters feel when separated from their loved ones for decades, and from the loss of their former home, is captured well. It also follows the tear-jerking reunification of different people across the course of the play, and the different paths they end up taking, through a mixture of personal choice and fate.
'The Village' is an inspirational tale, showing how the characters manage to create a small community and get along, mostly. It shows the will of the second generation to escape poverty and the restrictive and uncontrollable lifestyle of being a refugee. The strength of the relationships forged and the attempts to carry on cultural traditions, such as the passing down of local recipes, is very moving. The story is spirited and life-affirming, and captures both the good and bad, while celebrating the determination to keep striving. It is also a bittersweet love story, following the romances between a few people and the love that holds people together through difficult times.
The use of props and stage design is well-considered, with only the bare outline of the houses shown, which accentuates the sense of living in rough conditions, and also highlights the fact that they live with a telephone pole a few feet away from which they all draw electricity (at a charge from the man who lives beneath the telephone pole). The acting is of a high quality, but the subtitles could be improved, as they occasionally stop and start, and also require looking to either side of the stage, instead of above the stage.
'The Village' is a community-oriented and even patriotic production. It brings the experiences of the refugee families in Taiwan to a wide audience and you really become invested in the story. The fact that it is set over two generations gives it a wider perspective and highlights family ties and connections as they evolve over time.
