Abstract

In 2013, Cheng-Ping Hsu, the adaptor of "Tainerer Ensemble," adapted Thornton Niven Wilder’s "Our Town" into a localized, intercultural performance, "Anping, Our Town," in Taiwan. In fact, under the influence of globalization in theatre, Taiwanese theatre has produced many intercultural performances, such as Shakespearean adaptations, but most of them are considered cultural collages. To our surprise, Tainener Ensemble’s "Anping, Our Town" can be seen as a successful intercultural performance in postmodern Taiwanese theatre because it is unlike those performances which merely appropriate western theatre without taking their historical traditions and cultures into consideration. According to Rustom Bharucha, an Indian interculturalist, appropriation in intercultural theatre which has a “de-historicizing tendency” is the most problematic aspect of interculturalism. Thus, in order to understand if Tainener Ensemble’s "Angping, Our Town" is a successful intercultural performance, we discuss three aspects of the play to explore how Cheng-Ping Hsu represents other culture in his own context, to compare the original and its theatrical adaptation, and to explore the components that have this theatrical hybridity be viewed a communicable “two-way street,” not a “dead end.”