Performance Workshop, long one of Taiwan's leading theatrical groups, is
breaking new ground with a original play by Ting Nai-cheng (丁乃箏) called
Love is a Two-Way Street, which opened yesterday at the National Theater and
will play there until Wednesday. In a theatrical first, the play will open
simultaneously in Shanghai, where it will be performed under the direction
of Chen Li-hua (陳立華).
Love is a Two-Way Street (他和他的兩個老婆) was inspired by the British
comedy Run for Your Wife, by prolific comic playwright Ray Coony, which was
first performed in 1983. The original play tells the story of John Smith, a
London cabbie with his own taxi, a wife in Streatham, a wife in Wimbledon
and a knife-edge schedule! He has been a successful, if tired, bigamist for
three years, but one day he is taken to hospital with mild concussion.
Complications ensure, and that is the stuff of ageless comedy.
Director Ting Nai-wen, a veteran of Performance Workshop's wide repertoire
of productions over the years, has updated this venerable show, and by
placing it in the context of modern-day cross-strait trade, has given
herself ample room for developing many comic themes. As in the original,
Love tells the story of a man with two wives, but in this case, one in
Taiwan and the other in Shanghai. It also introduces a host of new
characters such as scrupulous paparazzi who will stop at nothing to get a
story - or even better a recording - of sexual misbehavior. Playing on both
sides of the Strait, Taiwan's cast says it is very interested to see the
interpretation that the Shanghai cast puts on the show. Love is a Two-Way
Street will play at the National Theater at 7:30pm until May 22 with a
matinee on Sunday. Tickets cost from NT$300 to NT$1,800.
RSS