The Taipei Performing Arts Center Launches its TPAC SELECT Series
Six countries represented
Five major must-see works
In 2025, the Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) is launching its TPAC SELECT series, which brings together top artists and their works from all over the world, including German artist Heiner Goebbels’ Everything that Happened and Would Happen; French choreographer Boris Charmatz’s Liberté Cathédrale; South African artist William Kentridge’s SIBYL; Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski’s Respublika; and Dark Eyes Performance Lab’s Journey into the Apocalypse. These five are experimental theatre works that possess profound meaning and explore the essence of human existence, social changes, and future possibilities.
Everything that Happened and Would Happen (Photo Credit: Thanasis Deligiannis)
On a stage 50 meters deep, a sensory experience beyond theatre
Everything that Happened and Would Happen, a work by German artist Heiner Goebbels, leads audiences through landscapes of fragmented incidents from history. This is the first time that the stage of TPAC’s Grand Theater, which is 50 meters deep, is being fully used for a performance and it provides a magnificent platform for this historical narrative of World War I.
This piece was inspired by Czech author Patrik Ouředník’s book Europeana, American composer John Cage’s anti-opera concepts, and the Euronews programme No Comment. Goebbels interweaves musicians, dancers, recordings, and images on stage to present major and minor events from the 20th century.
Liberté Cathédrale (Photo Credit: Uwe Stratmann)
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Director Boris Charmatz’s new work Liberté Cathédrale
French choreographer Boris Charmatz’s Liberté Cathédrale is a dance production that pursues freedom through physical bodies in a cathedral setting. It is also his first work for Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch since becoming its director.
During its premiere at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Neviges, Germany in 2023, Charmatz transformed this cathedral into a stage filled with power and beauty. The performance began with 26 dancers rushing onto the stage as they sang, forming a vortex of bodies and sounds. When they suddenly stopped singing, the silence became oppressive. To recreate this ambience in Taipei, Charmatz decided to move the audience to the stage of the Grand Theater, creating a circular seating area, complete with the image of a cross.
SIBYL (Photo Credit: Stella Olivier)
AI algorithms and prophecies, William Kentridge’s SIBYL
In May 2024, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum held a solo exhibition by South African artist William Kentridge, which received widespread attention. The theatrical work SIBYL brings together his many talents in a cross-border banquet that combines music, animation, and installation art. It is inspired by the story of the Cumaean Sibyl, a prophetess in Greek mythology.
“The fact that your fate would be known, but you couldn’t know it,” a quote by Kentridge, expresses the human fear of and desire for the unknown. He skillfully brings his iconic sketches into play with stop motion photography, in addition to animation, mechanical devices, moving sculptures, piano accompaniment, and a men’s chorus. For this production, Kentridge received the 2023 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.
Dark Eyes Performance Lab’s Journey into the Apocalypse, a beautiful collision of classical music and jazz
Journey into the Apocalypse is a new work by Taiwan-based Dark Eyes Performance Lab in which Franz Schubert’s classic art song cycle Winterreise is rearranged based on a whole new perspective, becoming closely integrated with contemporary social issues. The bold musical innovations offer something for everyone.
There are two versions of this performance. One is the classical version featuring baritone Chao Fang-Hao, which faithfully presents the elegance and depth of Schubert’s original music. The jazz version is a new arrangement performed by singer Mars Lin and saxophone player Hsieh Min-Yen. The lyrics to Winterreise were translated into Taiwanese (Hokkien) by Tēnn Sūn-tshong to showcase Taiwan’s uniqueness.
Respublika (Photo Credit: Andrej Vasilenko)
Respublika, a six-hour Super Theater utopian experience
Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski, in collaboration with the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, created Respublika, which is the first production to be performed in TPAC’s Super Theater. This is an attempt to create an experimental utopia. During this six-hour immersive experience, audiences are invited to a grand party that combines exhibitions, performances, and installation art, to enjoy absolute freedom and to have fun.
Respublika is a free country with DJs, dance floor, kitchen, bar, sauna, trailer, and spaceship. Using electronic music, video art, and live performances, audience members feel as if they have entered a fictional utopia in a parallel universe. After completing entry formalities, they become citizens of this utopia and can freely move about, see the passion of performers up close, or stay in a corner and quietly observe everything that is happening. No matter how they participate, they can find their own place in this rave party.