Reviews

A riveting story of espionage and war at its surface, ONE ONE ZERO EIGHT, at its core, offers Stan Lai’s extraordinary musings on history, time, inheritance, and the functions of art.

- Raymond Zhou, cultural critic

A delightful surprise, Ni Ni’s stage debut is a testimony to the heart and soul she put into the production. Her line delivery and overall stage presentation are ample evidence of her versatility as a performer who has the audience completely enchanted.

- huanqiu.com

One One Zero Eight presents a kaleidoscopic view of life and love, where the interweaving of time and space enables the characters to have so much potential and at the same time remain true to their own narratives. They are at once artists, heroes, and lovers, but above all their stories are a powerful testament to the beauty of life which they share across time and space.

- i-takeit

About One One Zero Eight

A new play by Stan Lai.

On the surface, Stan Lai's latest work is a somewhat oddity in his dramatic canon, dealing with spies and espionage in the Second World War, but as it unfolds, the features of Lai's work are indelibly revealed through the layers of dialogue between past and present, fact and fiction, the juxtaposition of time and space and different realities, and his deep compassion for the human condition.

A contemporary internet novelist, Shu Tong, rents an old industrial building in Shanghai to see if she can get inspiration for her new novel on spies during the Japanese occupation. Through an old radio, she starts hearing music from the 40s and realizes that an artist who once lived in the building, Bai Shi, was actually working for the underground against the Japanese occupation. Improbably, they meet...

One One Zero Eight had its world premiere at Theatre Above in Shanghai, a theatre dedicated to the works of Stan Lai, in June 2019. It is Lai's 39th original work as playwright and director, and his 4th work performed at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, which featured his monumental A Dream Like a Dream as its inaugural performance at the first festival in 2013. The play features film star Ni Ni (Flowers of War) in her celebrated first stage role, and the acclaimed Taiwanese actor Fan Guangyao in the lead roles. Each actor has two challenging and enticing roles to perform. The set design is by Lai himself, with Lighting by Lai's longtime collaborator Michael Lee-zen Chien and costumes by Lu Pin.

Credits

Written, Directed and Scenic Design by Stan Lai

Featuring:

  Ni Ni – Shu Tong/Anna

  Fan Guangyao – Zhuang/Bai Shi

  Hao Guang – Pan Guoxiong/Upstairs Neighbor

  Ding Hui – Li/Old Li

  Ma Jingwen – Xiaoru/Cleaner

  Weng Leibin – Japanese General/Mover/Japanese Soldier/Piano Tuner/Sanitation Cleaner

  Song Yumin – Real Estate Agent/Mover/Factory Worker/Waitress

  Wan Xia Haoze – Japanese Soldier/Mover/Waiter/Beggar

Lighting Design: Michael Lizen Chien

Costume Design: Lu Pin

Choreography: Jiang Jun

Assistant Director: Yang Zhefen

Assistant Scenic Designer: Ye Danqing

Stage Manager: Cheng Jianxiong

Technical Directors: Wang Hanming, Shen Xinhui

Producer: Nai-chu Ding

Executive Producer: Vanessa Yeo

Production Management: December Yang, Hua Qi

About Stan Lai

Stan Lai is "The best Chinese language playwright and director in the world." (BBC) "Asia's top theatre director," (Asia Week), " Asia's flagship playwright." (China Daily) Beginning in Taiwan in the 1980s, Lai's plays have greatly influenced theatre in the Chinese language world, including his most famous play Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, which was performed in English at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2015). His The Village has been described by the Beijing News "the pinnacle of our era of theatre." His epic 8 hour A Dream Like A Dream (2000), has been called by China Daily as "possibly the greatest Chinese-language play since time immemorial." One One Zero Eight is Lai's 39th original work as playwright and director, and his 4th offering to the Wuzhen Festival.

Lai is Artistic Director of Performance Workshop, Taiwan, Theatre Above, Shanghai, and Co-founder and Festival Director of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, China.

About Performance Workshop & Theatre Above

Performance Workshop was founded in 1984 in Taipei by Stan Lai, Lee Li-chun and Lee Kuo-hsiu, with a mission to create new works for the Chinese language stage. Many of Stan Lai's plays were created through this, his Taiwan theatre group. In all, PW has produced over 50 original new works, many of which have become legendary icons of the modern Chinese-language theatre, mostly produced by Nai-chu Ding.

Theatre Above is a 699 theatre facility in the heart of Shanghai, designed by Stan Lai and dedicated to the works in his dramatic canon as well as new works in the Chinese speaking world. The theatre opened in 2015, and has since established itself as one of the leading venues in Shanghai for dramatic art.

Theatre Above has its own acting company which forms the nucleus of many new works. Stan Lai is its artistic director, and Nai-chu Ding leads the production and management team. It is a venue plus company that can finally realize the dream of producing the large canon of Stan Lai's works in a rotating repertory.