Second Creative Response to Family Migrations

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Red Bridge

For my grandfather

The stage is empty, save for a dinner table and a chair.  An old man sits on the chair.  His hair is white, but his body looks strong.  He is 85 years old. There is a spotlight that illumines the table.  The rest of the room is dark.  The old man is sipping from a cup of tea.  He blows into the cup to release some of the steam, then sips carefully so as not to burn his tongue.  Although his movements are careful, they are done so in a relaxed manner.  His eyes do not stray from the cup, and he seems to be meditating peacefully.  He is not wearing a microphone.  From off-stage, an elderly woman’s voice speaks Taiwanese, as if on the phone.  After two minutes, the spotlight fades, and a moving image is projected onto the wall behind the man.  The image is of waves washing up onto the shore, and we can hear the sound of the waves lapping gently onto the sand.  This lasts for one minute.

As the video fades, the spotlight comes on again, and this time a middle-aged man, around 55 years old, is sitting at the table, sipping a cup of tea.  His brow is furrowed, and he reads a newspaper as he drinks, turning his gaze away from the print only to make sure he does not burn his tongue when he takes a sip.  Because he is wearing a microphone, the sound of his sipping is loud and audible.  As he continues to sip and read, the spotlight fades and a series of black and white images comes on as a slideshow projected onto the wall behind him.  The images are from this collection: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=848120.  The man’s sipping is consistent, at approximately the same rhythmic pace as the sound of waves from the earlier moving image.

As the images finish, the stage lights come on.  This time, the table and chair are still there, but there is a bridge that arches over the table.  The middle-aged man still sits at the chair reading books.  He has finished his cup of tea and it sits on the table.  A young man, age 35 walks over the bridge, which is red, in the style of ornamental bridges in Japanese gardens. (See below.) He has a young lady on his arm, and they stroll over and across the bridge speaking Japanese.  In the gaps of conversation in Japanese over the bridge, the middle-aged man reads from the books.  Each sentence he reads is a line from the poem, 床前明月光 (“In the Quiet of the Night”—See http://www.musicated.com/syh/tangpoems.htm.)

When the poem, interspersed between the conversation, is finished, the lights fade.  Immediately, there is the sound of a television newscast, as one would see in Taiwan, as a segment is projected on to the wall.  This segment lasts for 3 minutes.

When the segment ends, the stage lights come on again.  This time, a different kind of bridge occupies the stage.  (See below.)   The table and chair have been moved to the front of the bridge.  The following objects are on the table: a telephone, a newspaper, and a cup of tea.  Three men stand very still on the bridge, as if frozen in time.  Their bodies are evenly spaced, facing the right side of the stage and with the right side of their bodies facing the audience.  They are dressed in clothes of specific historical periods, which are all shades of black, blue, and brown.  The oldest man, wearing an undershirt and linen pants, is standing closest to the right end of the bridge.  He stands erect but still uses a cane.  The middle-aged man, wearing a business suit, is standing in the middle of the bridge.  The youngest man is on the left end of the bridge.  He is wearing the uniform of the Nationalist Army and holding a rifle.  10 seconds into this scene, he drops the rifle, creating a loud sound.  At the sound, a group of women and children, dressed in hues of red, rush onto the stage from the left side of the stage.  They are holding a very large red banner, made of gauze, and they use the large banner to cover all three men and the bridge.

The children scatter off-stage and into the audience, and two women remain on the stage.  The older woman (who was speaking Taiwanese offstage earlier) picks up the phone and begins to listen without speaking.  The younger woman (who was on the red bridge) begins to clear off the table, taking away the newspaper and the cup. 

As the lights fade, the moving image of the waves once again projects onto the wall, with the soothing sound of water lapping onto the sand.