Wu Hsing‐kuo’s Metamorphosis as postdramatic intercultural theater

Abstract

Wu Hsing‐kuo and his Contemporary Legend Theater adapted Kafka’s seminal novella The Metamorphosis into an intercultural play named Metamorphosis in 2013. In light of the connections between Hans‐Thies Lehmann’s theory of postdramatic theater and new interculturalism in theater, where both emphasize rhizomatic structures to break down imperialist transcultural synthesis, this article explores an experimental mode of intercultural theater exemplified by Wu’s Metamorphosis. It argues that the play builds on the framework of postdramatic theater an intercultural rhizome embodying various routes of East–West interconnection embedded in concrete material conditions, which meets the demands of new interculturalism. Specifically, this article finds that the play’s postdramatic form benefits the intersections both inside and beyond theater among Eastern traditional art and philosophy, Western individualism and industrialized modernity, against the backdrop of Taiwan’s social and cultural circumstances. The postdramatic intercultural mode of performance in Metamorphosis points towards a possible direction for the future development of contemporary intercultural theater.