7 March 2025, Charlotte Lee, Taiwan News
Review (en)

Expect the unexpected with Heiner Goebbels show in Taipei

Taipei Performing Arts Center to host Asia premiere of 'Everything that Happened and Would Happen'

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Heiner Goebbels' “Everything that Happened and Would Happen” will make its Asia debut this Saturday and Sunday at the Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Spanning a century of European history from World War I onward, the performances in Taipei unfold across a stage that extends 50 m deep. Twelve performers manipulate oversized props, including towering columns, fake boulders, uncontrolled water pipes, and vast fabrics, gradually revealing fragments of history through movement and stark lighting.

Goebbels, who first visited Taipei in 2016 when the performing arts center was still under construction, said he finds inspiration in the act of building itself.

“Usually you don’t know what it’s going to be, so you are participating in a process of something being created,” he said.

He wants audiences to embrace this, he said. “I want the audience to be curious and participate in the process of something going to be.”

Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, “Everything that Happened and Would Happen” invites audiences to construct their interpretations. Goebbels deliberately avoids projecting meaning onto the work, instead encouraging discovery.

Music plays a crucial role, but like the performance itself, it is in a constant state of flux, featuring a mix of air raid sirens, horror movie soundscapes, construction noises, and improvised compositions. These compositions are created by four musicians on drums, gongs, guitar, saxophone, and electronic keyboards, creating an atmosphere of controlled chaos.

Goebbels added that the music is also under construction and is not performed the same way at every show.

For him, the most important aspect of the production is how the performers interact with each other. Without traditional storytelling or explanations, audiences are confronted with a series of evolving scenes, left to piece together their own understanding.

on: Everything that happened and would happen (Music Theatre)