‘I don’t believe in Utopia’ – Curtains open on mainland’s first tent theater

By He Jianwei

Rapid urbanization is creating new ghettos at an unprecedented rate and poverty continues to haunt the modern world. As unlikely as it may sound, theater is needed now more than ever.

At least a certain brand of theater.

Japanese playwright and director Sakurai Daizo has spent 37 years working in tent theater, and in that time he has never let his focus falter from art’s role as social critic.

He first introduced tent theater to Taiwan in 2000. His performance in the capital seven years later led to a grassroots offshoot: Tent-Beijing.

Now the local tent theater group is ready to stage its first drama – a wrenching look at the issues the city’s migrant workers face every day.

“It’s neither utopian nor anti-utopian. I call it Wuyabang, something like a group of crows living near a dump.”

– Sun Bai, playwright of Wuyangbang

“I’m afraid that people are going in the dangerous direction of consumerism and capitalism. In the capital cities of government founded in the name of eradicating poverty, the problems only worsened.”

– Sakurai Daizo, tent-theater playwright and director

Photos provided by Tent-Beijing