The rebirth of tradition, and Waiting for Godot
The year 1995 saw the closing of military theaters. The "big three" had been amalgamated into the National Opera Theatre, and many performers were sacked.
However, 1995 was also the 8th year for the Contemporary Legend Theatre, founded by Wu and his enthusiastic friends in Taipei.
Seeking to revitalize traditional Chinese drama by adapting Western classical plays to the style and techniques of Peking Opera, the theatre put on shows mixing Western plays, traditional opera and contemporary dance.
Although some people said this kind of mixing was unacceptable for Peking Opera – some even used the phrase "deception of the ancestors" – the innovative operas were welcomed by the public.
Wu was truly a cross-over king, combining the fields of traditional opera, dance, modern theatre, cinema, and television. In 1992, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in New York with Richard Schechner. That year, he also won the Hong Kong Film Award for best new actor.
In 1994, Wu and Wei Hai-Min, the theater's leading hua dan (female character) were invited to perform at the Paris Summer Festival.
They were asked by the organizer to perform An Tian Hui, a Peking Opera telling a story of the Monkey King which involves much technical detail, but a scarcity of emotion.
"I was not too happy with that. They thought Peking Opera was just a particular skill," Wu recalled, "So I changed it to the Hegemon King Says Farewell to his Queen. They needed to know that Peking Opera has a soul."
The play tells the story of Xiang Yu, the self-styled "Hegemon-King of Western Chu" who battled for the unification of China with Liu Bang, the eventual founder of the Han Dynasty.
In the play Xiang Yu is surrounded by Liu Bang's forces and on the verge of total defeat. He then calls for the company of his favorite concubine, Consort Yu (aka Yuji).
Realizing the dire situation that has befallen them, she begs to die alongside her master, but Xiang Yu strongly refuses. Afterwards, when he is distracted, Yu commits suicide with Xiang Yu's sword.
Wu did not change the story at all and performed it in the traditional way. He said the "prisoner had been eventually released".
However, Wu's career, along with the theatre's, hit bottom in 1998 when Wu and his colleagues were busy rehearsing for another play, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Authorities said the show was not a Western classic, and should not be adapted into Peking Opera, but Wu knew this was just an excuse. Rather, he knew that political forces had been rampant in advocating "Taiwan Independence", and that Peking Opera was seen by them as something from the mainland.
Legend and tradition reborn
The Contemporary Legend Theatre did not open for three years until 2001, but its cross-over style remained.
Wu was the leading actor and director of four Shakespeare adaptations, including the critically acclaimed Kingdom of Desire, an adaptation of Macbeth and King Lear in which Wu played all the parts.
In 2006, Wu and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo performed an opera named The First Emperor at The Metropolitan Opera in New York.
The opera, directed by Zhang Yimo, received as much criticism as praise, while Wu's performance earned him praise in the American media, who hailed him as "the most confident performer,."
That same year, Wu had a tragic dream about his master Chou Cheng-jung, in which Chou wielded a sword against him. Wu blocked him but ended up killing his master in the dream. Two months later, Wu received a phone call from Chou's wife saying that Chou had just passed away.
The dream was a wake-up call for Wu. In 2009, he decided to rehearse again for traditional Peking Opera with his apprentices. "If we don't do anything, these traditions will become extinct," Wu said.
He played Chou's part in a traditional opera called Wen Qiao, as the master's wife sat in the audience.
"After the show, I asked her how my performance was. She said it was better than my master," Wu said. "I felt like something in my heart was melting, and that my debt had been cleared."
Once a king of cross-over, Wu has now become a master of reviving tradition. "I am looking for myself, thinking of myself, knowing myself, hating myself, loving myself. Who am I? I am Wu Hsing-Kuo."
