Drama "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land "

Venue: Huang Hua Gang Theater
Time: 2007-06-05,06
Tickets: ￥680,580,380,280,180,100
Tel: 8386 5690, 8384 6330

The mainland version of the iconic Taiwanese play 'Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land' will be performed in Guangzhou in May, after enjoying both critical acclaim and commercial success in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an in the past months.

The play, the best known creation of influential Taiwan director and playwright Stan Lai, was first staged in Taiwan in 1986. The mainland premiere was in Beijing's Capital Theater last November, and featured well-known mainland film stars and TV anchorpersons like Huang Lei, Yuan Quan, He Jiong, Xie Na, and Yu Tai'en.

Apart from a few lines adapted to the contemporary context, such as references to the bribery allegations against Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, and Beijing's notorious traffic congestion, the mainland version largely retains the original structure and content.

'Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land' is a mixture of comedy and tragedy that revolves around a contrivance: Two different theater troupes find themselves trapped in the same rehearsal space, and the two seemingly different plays overlap thematically.

The more serious of the two plays, 'Secret Love' is about a man named Jiang Binliu (played by Huang Lei) who was cruelly separated from his lover in 1949, when the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan. Four decades later, Jiang is an old man lying on his deathbed in a Taipei hospital room as his unloved Taiwanese wife looks on. He is still brooding about the past, desperate to see his lover before he dies. It turns out that his lover Yun Zhifan (played by Yuan Quan) also came to Taipei decades ago.

Blog (Chinese): http://blog.sina.com.cn/althy

Taiwan director Stan Lai (L), actress Yuan Quan (C) and Lai's wife



Actress Yuan Quan

Source: www.lifeofguangzhou.com

Editor: Jessie Hwang