Chopped, a satirical musical, explores the absurdity and cruelty of war through the journey of four strangers pulling together to fulfill a veteran’s death wish. Inspired by the Russo-Ukrainian War, the metaphorical tale traces the mission of a musician, farmer, deserter, and "dog" to return a soldier's severed hand and how they learn to nurse their wounds and lean on each other in the process. Inspired by the text messages sent by Russian young men expressing their anger and despair at their government’s lies, the Chinese musical, stemming from the NTT & CTBC Musical Playwright Incubation Project, reflects on the brutality of war and seeks to rediscover hope amid despair through the eyes of a group of underdogs.

Playwright & Lyricist / YANG Xuan-zhe

YANG Xuan-zhe graduated from the Department of Theater Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts and received MFA in Theater at the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts, National Taiwan Normal University. His works in recent years include Hades Items: apocalypse and Old Man Hero by 2021 Fancy Frontier and How to Eat Faust, Fu Shi Bai Yuan by Studio Particle and The Fantasticks an Off-Broadway musical production in 2022.

Music / Vincent JUO

Vincent JUO graduated from the Department of Music, National Sun Yat-sen University and has been working in the music industry for over a decade. In 2018, he established Our Space Music Studio, specializing in theater sound design, pop music production, film and TV score, video game music, and audiobook production. His works have been nominated for the Golden Melody Awards, Golden Indie Music Awards, and Golden Bell Awards multiple times. JUO constantly broadens his creative horizon by seeking collaborations with a wide range of performing arts groups and artists.

Director / HUNG Hsin-huei

A graduate of the National Sun Yat-sen University's Department of Theatre Arts and the East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex, HUNG Hsin-huei is a theater playwright, director and performer. After returning to Taiwan, she founded Bon Appétit Theatre and has collaborated with the NTCH Performing Arts Library, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), Esplanade Theatres on the Bay in Singapore, and the Wordwave Festival. In recent years, she has focused on exploring existential meanings of life, the relationships among living organisms, and specialized in creating works of  allegorical narratives in theatrical spaces.

Production & Performance Team / Hyper Curation & Bon Appétit Theatre

Hyper Curation is dedicated to interdisciplinary artistic programming, production, and publishing, and its cultural production and practice go beyond boundaries with multi-disciplinary connections. The production is a collaboration with the Bon Appétit Theatre, led by director HUNG Hsin-huei. "Bon Appétit" refers to the act of testing and having a great appetite for creativity. The theater company builds on original storytelling, experiments with sound and collective co-creation. It explores the coalescence, dimensions and material substance of sound and music as well as various performance forms rendering tangibility.