Playwrights write; directors direct; actors act; and audiences watch. But what if you are blind? To survive you must learn to operate in the dark. Such is the world of Susy Hendrix, the central protagonist in the Lab Space’s version of Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark, a play well staged and directed by Brook Hall and Ting Kao (高詩婷).
As the play opens, con men Mike Talman (Dan O’Shea) and Carlino (John Brownlie) have been lured to the apartment of Susy (Esther Veronin) and her husband Sam (Andrew Chau) when they are out. They have been brought there by a ruthless Harry Roat (Stewart Glen) to help find a heroin-stuffed doll that Sam inadvertently brought home without Susy’s knowledge. But now the doll is missing and Roat and company seek to keep Sam at a distance and con the recently blind Susy into helping them find the doll. So the game begins.
SUPERB CAST
Photo courtesy of Michael Lao
Veronin shines in the challenging lead role, where she must play to the voices of the other characters and project her own voice with a mixture of credible vulnerability and strength, so as to outwit the deadly con artists.
Matched well against Susy are three diverse heavies, the gruff Carlino, a smoother Talman and the sinister Roat who will stop at nothing to win. Susy can out-psyche Talman, but Roat is a different matter. You would not want him as a neighbor. Helping Susy is the petulant girl next door, Gloria (played in alternate performances by Angelina Chen (陳冠如) and Danielle Beuker), who at first complicates the con, but helps Suzy in the end.
Set designer Yang Chih-yi (楊之儀) makes excellent use of the venue’s flexible space to create a basement apartment, which adequately contains the action while still suggesting additional dimensions with an outside streetlight and the hint of a back bedroom.
Jenna Robinette (costumes) and Adam Dupuis (specialty props) embellish a strong 60s feeling while Anton Botes adds his intriguing and original sound track.
Staged in cooperation with the Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs, this is a dramatic show well worth seeing.
As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China. The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. In fact, just the opposite would have been huge news. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas. For some Chinese, that means flying to Seoul to see their favorite groups perform — as many were expected to do for three shows opening
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
The entire Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) saga has been an ugly, complicated mess. Born in China’s Hunan Province, she moved to work in Shenzhen, where she met her future Taiwanese husband. Most accounts have her arriving in Taiwan and marrying somewhere between 1993 and 1999. She built a successful career in Taiwan in the tech industry before founding her own company. She also served in high-ranking positions on various environmentally-focused tech associations. She says she was inspired by the founding of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in 2019 by Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), and began volunteering for the party soon after. Ko
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) returned from her trip to meet People’s Republic of China (PRC) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) bearing “a gift” for the people of Taiwan: 10 measures the PRC proposed to “facilitate the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.” “China on Sunday unveiled 10 new incentive measures for Taiwan,” wrote Reuters, wrongly. The PRC’s longstanding habit with Taiwan relations is to repackage already extant or once-existing policies and declare that they are “new.” The list forwarded by Cheng reflects that practice. NEW MEASURES? Note the first item: establishing regular communication mechanisms between the Chinese Communist Party
RSS