`Theater for Two'moves into `Eden'

As part of "Theater for Two," the title of this year's month-long Eslite Basemant Festival, Party Theater Group (同黨劇團) tonight will present tragic-comedy Eden (新天堂樂園). In keeping with the festival's theme, the six characters in the play about homosexual relationships will be played by a cast of two.

The story is set in Taipei's 228 Park, a favorite meeting place for homosexual men. Under a pale lamp light and the heavy shade of a tree, A-hong, an effeminate boy waits for his lover, Wu, a divorced father of two. When Wu arrives visibly exhausted from work and taking care of his kids, A-hong's earnest hope for a relationship in the open falls on deaf ears. The two painfully realize there's no way for them to have a normal relationship. They decide never to see each other again as the melody from Everytime We Say Goodbye starts wafting through the air.

Later on, Yolk, a sadomasochist looking for true love; Mosquito, a bisexual who dates his boss behind his girlfriend's back and other characters enter the story. For each, there's something lacking in their love life.

Chiu An-chin (邱安忱), the play's director, wrote the script and staged it back in 1996, when 228 Peace Park was still called "New Park." It started as a journal he kept in order to understand his own homosexuality, and frequented the park to talk with other gay men about his love life and theirs. For the script, he spent some 30 evenings there listening to the stories of around 20 homosexual men. He then created the six characters out of these true stories.

"After so many years, people can still identify with these characters and their problems. It's sad, because that shows that misunderstandings about homosexuals are still prevalent," Chiu said.

Eden will be performed at 7:30pm tonight, 2:30pm and 7:30pm tomorrow and 2:30pm tomorrow in the basement of Eslite's Tunhwa branch. Tickets are available through Acer Ticketing outlets at NT$450.