Caught in the 'cross' fire

    During the first three days of 2012, the Taiwan-based crosstalk group Comedian's Workshop (Xiangsheng Washe in Chinese) staged their Shanghai debut with their most popular show The Last One of Ming Dynasty at Shanghai Oriental Art Center (SHOAC). As the best-known crosstalk actors in Taiwan, Feng Yi-gang and Song Shao-qing - starring in this show with actor Huang Shi-wei - both founded the group in 1988 when they were still university students. They were also part of a performance workshop led by the famous Taiwan theater director Stan Lai, and starred in a production called The Village.

String of jokes

In the common perception of traditional Chinese crosstalk, performers usually wear long Chinese-style gowns, while delivering a string of jokes completely unrelated to each other. However Washe's works are somewhat different from this convention in that they combine theatrical performances as well as costume changes and stage props. They don't only speak as themselves on stage, but assume the roles of different characters. Their performances are divided into episodes, linked by a single script that lasts for around 100 minutes. The result sees audiences in stitches of laughter from the beginning to the end of the show.

Feng explained their art form quoting his own lines from The Last One. "Whether audiences see us as crosstalk or not, if I think it is, then it is. From the viewpoint of the late songstress Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun), Pavarotti was only shouting loudly. And from the perspective of Pavarotti, Teng was only taking a deep breath. Their shows are different, but they knew in their hearts that they were both singing. We should not judge them by a single standard."

Washe, literally meaning "tile house," is an ancient Chinese word dating from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to denote a large theater that contained many performing spaces. "The name of our workshop also asks people to walk into our theaters to watch our performances, rather than what they usually do with traditional crosstalk - listen to tapes and the radio," Feng said.

Feng writes all the scripts for the workshop. He usually includes widely known Chinese historical events and legends in his works which are the source of the eventual punch lines. "You are what you eat, and I know quite a bit about history," Feng said modestly. "So it's much easier for me to develop a story based on a historical topic."

Premiered in 2001, The Last One is a fictional account of the last eunuch loyal to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Although the Qing (1644-1911) government has already taken power, this eunuch plans to restore the Ming Dynasty. Apart from historical stories, Feng also includes some philosophical lines in the pieces. For example, "the last one" also means "the only one" in this context. Huang Shi-wei says during the performance: "Everyone is the only one. Everyone is irreplaceable."