Love On a Two-Way Street

Called "the most exciting theatre in the Chinese-speaking world" by the Far Eastern Economic Review, Performance Workshop is Taiwan's top contemporary theatre group.

Led by Artistic Director Stan Lai (Lai Sheng-chuan) and composed of a "Who's Who" of Taiwan's leading theatre artists, the group makes extensive use of improvisation in the creation of its work, forging a rare mix of experimental methods and a wide, popular audience base. Touring the world over the past decade, Performance Workshop productions focus on original plays and films that reflect current socio-political and universal concerns.

A prominent and influential voice in Chinese language theatre, Stan Lai is also known for his award-winning films, as well as his long career as an arts educator. His famous "crosstalk" (xiangsheng) series plays have helped create a large audience base for his critically acclaimed theatrical work. Millennium Teahouse, one of the crosstalk series, toured Beijing several times and was described as "using crosstalk to write crosstalk's elegy." After receiving his doctorate in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley, Lai's creativity and unique directorial vision have opened up a free and natural performance style.

Love on a Two-Way Street, written and directed by Nai-chang Ting, premiered on May 16, 2002, at Taipei's National Theatre. In the play, Chang Lee-kuo is a cab driver whose big ambition in life is to make a decent living for his family. He is hard working, sincere and good-natured, but Chang is a polygamist. Both of his wives are unaware of each other's existence and Lee-kuo endeavours in every way to make enough money to support both families. Things are going his way until one night when Lee-kuo comes across a fight between a man and a woman. The fierce bickering is over the proprietorship of a shameful video-recording of the very private life of a well-known female socialite. In the process of mediating between the man and the woman, Lee-kuo gets hold of the infamous tape by accident and unwittingly thrusts himself in to the harsh spotlight-glare at the centre one of the biggest scandals in town. Questioning identity and what is public and what is private, the play asks just how many lives one person can fabricate and still be able to hold the fort at home? Taiwan's political and social scandals mesh with the main character's absurd private life in what may just be a very real and very funny portrait of contemporary Taiwan.

For more information about the play, please visit: http://www.pwshop.com

Performer: Tianjin People's Art Theatre

Date: August 26-29, 2004

Venue: Tianqiao Theatre

天桥剧场：宣武区北纬路30号