Tainaner Ensemble (台南人劇團) returns to the stage this weekend with Q&A (Question and Amnesia — 首部曲), the first installment in a trilogy whose backdrop takes in Taipei, London and Berlin. The performance begins at 7:30pm tonight at Metropolitan Hall.
Written by Tsai Pao-chang (蔡柏璋), whose previous work for Tainaner includes Mulan (木蘭少女), a musical based on a Chinese morality tale, and the episodic and satirical K-24, Q&A returns to basics and presents a realistic and narrative-driven comedy (in the Shakespearean sense) complete with generational struggles, romantic misunderstandings and lots of deceit.
The first installment is told through the experiences of Liuyi (played by Tsai), who has just returned from Berlin. A morose and violent character, Liuyi’s relationships, with family, friends and lovers, are tempestuous. While walking on a Taipei street one day he is knocked down by Fuyenxin, an alcoholic who is driving drunk. Frightened that she will be thrown in jail, Fuyenxin leaves the scene of the crime.
Suffering guilt pangs, Fuyenxin visits Liuyi, who now suffers from amnesia — a condition that transforms his personality from disaffected youth to optimistic adult. While at the hospital, she encounters Liuyi’s parents who mistake her for their son’s girlfriend, Gigi. Too embarrassed to reveal her true identity, Fuyenxin plays along.
Deception follows deception and Fuyenxin soon falls in love with the man she almost killed. The first installment ends on New Year’s Eve when a police officer shows up to the home of Liuyi’s parents to divulge the identity of the hit-and-run driver. Upon entering, the cop is shocked to see Fuyenxin with Liuyi.
Although I didn’t catch a rehearsal (there were none as of press time), the intricacy of the script and Tsai’s increasingly mature character development should provide audiences of Q&A with much to laugh at and think about.
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