During an interview with the director of the 2021 Senior Play Production, Dee’Dee Tsai, and leading cast Quentin Liao provide a closer insight into the core concept of the play No Quarter (written by Polly Stenham) and their interpretation of the script.
A majority of Polly Stenham’s play depicts dysfunctional families. No Quarter focuses on Robin’s attempt to defend his home after being kicked out of school in London. After finding out the house is going to be sold by his ten-year-older brother Oliver (played by Young Tsai), Robin (played by Quentin Liao) decides to stop the house from being sold by doing anything he could. No Quarter examines relationships, namely, the relationships between Robin and his mother, brother, friends, and admirers. At the same time, it demonstrates Robin’s intention of protecting his last shelter and his sense of value “the whole world corrupts whereas I am the only one sober.”
No Quarter stands for “no mercy.” “No one has mercy for Robin, and Robin has ‘no quarter’ for anyone as well. This is how it looks on the surface,” said Liao. Underneath the surface, when others try to offer help to Robin, he refuses to accept it and distances himself further away from them. Robin lives in fantasies built by his mother, but he refuses to accept the real world when others intend to bring him back to reality. “The impact on Robin from every character in the play may be what we encounter in the real-life,” said Tsai, pointing out the feature of relationships that people are all mutually influencing each other.
When asked about the ending of the play, Liao said, “there’s no so-called happy ending for No Quarter. At the end of the play, people are not granted happiness for sure.” Compared to last year’s Cleansed, No Quarter focuses on inner conflicts rather than vivid and brutal acts of violence. Cleansed portrays the dark side of humanities and only those who survive until the end obtain hope in their lives. As for No Quarter, the whole play depicts the struggle between reality and Robin’s fantasy. “Any relationship remaining stable may lose its balance at the next moment,” said Tsai. “And we welcome everyone to think about the ending of No Quarter.” The crew left an open-ended question for the audience to guess what might happen next by examining every detail of the interaction between the characters.
The director of the 2021 Senior Play Production No Quarter, Dee'Dee Tsai. Photo by Athena Chu.
Q: What motivated you to choose No Quarter as 2021 Senior Play production? Tsai: Practically speaking, No Quarter requires a lower level of technical skills than the other script I was going to choose. The ages of the characters are all similar to ours, and we, fortunately, got an equivalent number of actors and actresses this time. Therefore, considering our current condition, No Quarter would be more suitable. In addition to those practical facts, the main reason I chose this script is that No Quarter deals with the issue of relationships, including the relationships with parents, lovers, admirers, and friends. I was facing some dilemmas when choosing the script, and I realized coping with different relationships is crucial in our lives. Somehow, I can understand how relationships influence our lives by looking through the script.
Q: How would you describe Robin, the character you are playing? Liao: I would say he is bisexual with an Oedipus complex. Robin is born gifted. However, except for talent, he has nothing left but only an empty corpse. In the play, some of his behaviors would be tolerated just because of his talent. If others do the same thing as him, they might be disproved and blamed. However, society tends to tolerate the faults made by those who are gifted, so others cannot directly drag him back to reality.
Robin, protagonist of the play No Quarter, played by Quentin Liao. Photo by Dee'Dee Tsai.
Q: What do you expect to leave in the audience’s mind after watching the play? Tsai: I cannot control the audience to have the same interpretation. As we all come from different backgrounds, everyone may have several understandings based on their own experience no matter if the story ends happily or sadly. But what I hope is that the audience can relate to the story and have certain enlightenment after watching the play.
Liao: A novelist Nathalie Chang(張亦絢)wrote this quote in the preface of her novel: “I offer the biggest regret for not being able to tell a happier story, but I hope the novel can make your life better at the end.”
On December 20th, 21st, and 23rd, the 2021 Senior Play of the English Department at Fu Jen Catholic University, No Quarter by Polly Stenham, would be performed at Arens Performing Arts Center.
Other characters in No Quarter : from left to right, Arlo (played by Alexander Ke), Oliver (played by Young Tsai), Esme (played by Zaida Lin), Tommy (played by Harris Wang), Lily (played by Eva Hsiao), Coby (played by Sylvia Zhan). Photo by Athena Chu.