REVIEW: Whale, Where Are You Going? - Beautiful, Heartwarming and Delicate

©️Whale, Where Are You Going?

Whale, Where Are You Going? is a gentle story that carries its audience into a world of imagination and emotion. It follows a stubborn elderly man living a quiet, repetitive life, until a playful puppet child enters and gradually becomes his companion. The audience then sees the old man's memory of encountering a whale in his youth. And in the end, he transforms his workbench into a flying machine and takes the boy on a shared flight, while far below, a whale swims with its own young companion.

The stage is filled with the man's crafts, with a brightly decorated curtain at the back that serves multiple roles: the backdrop for shadow puppetry, the stormy waves, and a passage between reality and imagination. The lighting is also subtle and responsive, complementing each scene, while the sound design vividly conjures the force of stormy seas.

At times, the enormous shadow of a whale glides across the theatre, blurring the boundary between stage and audience. When the man and puppet soar in their “aircraft”, clouds and mist sweep over spectators, creating a fully immersive fairy-tale flight.

Yet, the whale in the story remains almost entirely a symbolic presence. The story hovers, poetic and evocative, though at times it risks drifting away from a tangible emotional core.

Still, Whale, Where Are You Going? is a tender, finely crafted puppet performance, a fantasy of companionship and imagination. It offers a gentle, immersive experience that leaves audiences with a quiet sense of wonder and healing.

★★★★

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Credits:

Director: Yi-Wen Chu
Puppeteers: Chih-Tien Ku, Wei-Ting Chou, Bo-Wei Yang (2023–2024)
Performers: Yi-Wen Chu (2019–2022), Hong-Sheng Luo (2023, 2025), Wen-Rui Zhong (2024)
Co-creators: Chih-Tien Ku, Yi-Wen Chu, Shi-Ting Wu, Bo-Wei Yang, Hong-Sheng Luo
Pre-production Development & Creation: Wei-Ting Chou
Pre-production Development Support: Jing-Wen Zeng
Music Design & Technical Direction: Chien-Hsin Lin
Stage Design: Jie-Qi Li (2022–2024), Jin-Ting Chen (2025)
Lighting Design: Zih-Fu Jhu (2022), Bing-Xin Lin (2023–2025)
Puppet Design: Yi Ruan
Puppetry Instruction: Yi Ruan
Main Visual Design: Ya-Ru Yang (2022–2024), Chih-Tien Ku (2025)
Promotional Video: Ren-Yi Wang
Stage Manager: Jia-Ru Li (2022), Yu-De Liu (2023–2024)
Assistant Stage Manager: Yu-De Liu (2022)
International Producer: Yu-Hong Lin
Executive Producer: Yi-Ting Wu
Assistant Directors: Yi-Ting Wu (2022–2023), Syuan-Huei Liou (2022–2023), Yu-Qian Lin (2024)
Still Photographers: Yan-Ting Chen (Pingtung), Yi-Zhi Fang (Tainan)