Reviews

Hats off to Director Lai! I thought The Village would be the height of Performance Workshop's achievements after Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land , but River/Cloud is equally stunning.

Peggy Chiao

River/Cloud is an epic poem written by the river of time, illuminating eternal love through the lens of drama. Once the box of time is opened, everything becomes a beautiful scene.

Wang Yue

The two outstanding leads aside, the blank spaces left by other characters further provide infinite imagination and sorrow.

Bowie Tsang

Rarely does a theatrical work, 40 years later, manage to fill in half of its gaps, developing into an entirely new and complete work. After weaving through eras, adding meta character plots, incorporating bits of ordinary life, and creating new shared urban memories, it shines with warmth and the moving light of the times.

LanXin, The Storm Media

About River/Cloud

Stan Lai 40th original work, River/Cloud, is a theatrical poem chronicling two displaced lovers of modern theatre lore, in a misplaced era. The play features Chang Chen and Hsiao Ai, with a special performance by musical giant Kimbo Hu. 

The "River" and "Cloud" of River/Cloud are Jiang (River) and Yun (Cloud) from Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land. Where in the original classic Secret Love we saw the beginning and end of their story, River/Cloud captures everything in between. Beginning with the letters they never received from each other, it shows the parallel lives of the two lovers, who cross paths but never meet for nearly forty years. Stan Lai, waving his magic theatrical wand, transcends time and space by juxtaposing layers of text and philosophical dialogues to build a poetic, poignantly melancholic narrative structure. Critic Peggy Chiao said, "I thought The Village would be the height of Performance Workshop's achievements after Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land , but River/Cloud  is equally stunning."

River/Cloud is about ordinary life in Taipei in the 1960s and '70s, after the upheaval of 1949. Stan Lai says, "That was the Taipei of my childhood. I think Taipei in those days, though poor, was probably the most interesting city in the world, with 2 million displaced people from the mainland, including my parents, interspersed in Taiwan society, some of whom were always stylishly dressed, but behind their smiles you could clearly see their inexplicable pain." River/Cloud pays homage to that particular era. Characters who appeared in fleeting mention in Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, such as Yun's sister, mother, and elder brother, and Jiang's friend Han, his son, and so on, all come to life on this kaleidoscopic stage. The play not only fills in the stories of the two protagonists, but is also a profound reflection on life and time. 

"It turns out that fate is objective, but happiness is subjective." A portrait of an era, River/Cloud depicts two people searching for peace in the midst of upheaval, while also searching for a love long lost but never forgotten. "All these years, have you thought of me?" After nearly forty years, Stan Lai has composed a theater poem, a record of a misplaced era, answering in his own words the famous question from Secret Love. As the river flows by, the clouds in the sky leave no trace. Drawn from his own classic, Lai has created a new classic in River/Cloud.

Scenic Designer Daniel Ostling uses a series of interconnecting boxes to create a "memory box" that skillfully brings forth the characters' lives across four decades, a collage of the fleeting cloud-like lives of a generation. Lin Ching-hsia and Ismene Ting, who starred in previous versions of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, provided letter content, adding to the play's meta-theatrical and self-reflective aesthetics. In 2024, River/Cloud features film and television star Chang Chen, as well as "Theatre Diva" Hsiao Ai, who has played Yun Zhifan since 1991. Stan Lai himself composed River/Cloud Tango, an evocative piece of music that runs through the entire play. The play also incorporates the live performance of the legendary Kimbo Hu, the father of Taiwanese folk music, an aesthetic touch that gives structural reflection to the imprint of the original Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land.

Credits

Playwright/Director/Composer: Stan Lai

Letter writing contribution: Lin Ching-hsia and Ismene Ting

Theater consultant: Chin Shi-chieh

Cast: Chang Chen, Hsiao Ai, 

        Gu Xuewei, Li Shaojie, Fan Xiuzhu, Si Wen, Ma Jingwen, 

        Yuan Xinli, Wei Yicheng, Weng Quanwei, Chen Guohui

Special appearance by: Kimbo Hu

Set Design: Daniel Ostling

Lighting Design: Michael Lee-zen Chien

Video Image Design: Ethan Wang

Costume Design: FANG,TING-RUEI , WONG,BANG-FONG

Choreography: SU Wei-Chia

Graphic Design: Ayen Chen

Music Director: Stan Lai

Original Theme Song River/Cloud Tango composed by Stan Lai

Arrangement: John Vaughan

Musicians: John Vaughan, piano, Cristina Paradise, violin, Tsai Wei-chien, accordion, Greg Anderson, Bass, Stan Lai, guitar

Some characters derive from Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, copyright Stan Lai and Lee Li-chun.

Senior Producer: Nai-Chu Ding

About Stan Lai

"An indispensable figure in world theatre... he remains unchallenged as the major contemporary Asian playwright of his time, perhaps of all time."

-Robert Brustein

Stan Lai is considered "the best Chinese language playwright and director in the world" (BBC)" and Asia's top theatre director" (Asiaweek). Since 1984, Lai's plays have greatly influenced theatre in the Chinese-language world, including those regarded as masterpieces of the modern Chinese-language theatre such as Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, The Village, his 8 hour A Dream Like A Dream, called by China Daily "possibly the greatest Chinese-language play since time immemorial," and his 5 hour AGO.

Lai's publications include the 3 volume, 12 play collection of his own English translations Selected Plays of Stan Lai (edited by Lissa Tyler Renaud, University of Michigan Press, 2022) his influential Stan Lai on Creativity (soon to be published in English), and 3 boxed sets of 28 plays (in traditional and simplified Chinese). Among other awards, Lai received Taiwan's National Arts Award an unprecedented twice. He was also awarded a star on the Walk of Fame at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. Lai is also an award-winning feature filmmaker and acclaimed opera and events director, as well as a noted theatre educator, having taught over two decades at Taipei National University of the Arts, and also at Berkeley, Stanford, CalArts and the Shanghai Theatre Academy. In 2020 the Nanjing University of the Arts established the Stan Lai Center for Theatre Studies which focuses on academic studies of his work. Lai is currently Artistic Director of Performance Workshop, Taiwan; and Theatre Above, Shanghai, a venue dedicated to the performance of his works, as well as founder of Theatre Training Above. He is Co-founder, Festival Director and Jury Head of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Founder of the Huichang Theatre Village, Head of the Artistic Committee of the Nanjing Festival of New Theatre.

Lai is married to Nai-chu Ding, who has produced most of his work

About Theatre Above

Since 2015, audiences have been wowed by the brilliant new productions at Theatre Above, one of Shanghai's newer theaters, and one of the only independently run theaters of its scale in China. Dedicated to the works of Stan Lai, acknowledged as the greatest playwright and director in the contemporary Chinese world, Theatre Above has become a landmark in the center of the city, a central hub for the creative theatre life of the Shanghai metropolis. 

Theatre Above is a 699 seat theatre facility in the heart of Shanghai, located in the Metro City mall complex in the central Xuhui District. Designed by Stan Lai himself, it is one of the few theatres in the world that was actually designed by its user. Since its opening, it has premiered many of Lai's new works, including the groundbreaking 5 hour work AGO, as well as preforming many modern classics of Lai's, including Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, The Village, and A Dream Like a Dream. Whereas these works would only have been available before on tour in Shanghai, now they can be seen by avid theatregoers in repertory at Theatre Above. The venue is also available for the works of other artists, and has become the preferred stage for many of Shanghai's producers and directors. All performances at Theatre Above provide English surtitles for non-Chinese speaking audiences. Surrounded by fine and casual dining and shopping, the theatre ushers in a new type of experience for the audience that combines art and life in a seamless whole. 

The name Theatre "Above" refers not only to artistic quality, but the physical location of the venue (5th floor -- "Above"). The theater's Chinese name, succinct in its one-word style - "Shang", also suggests its location, "Shanghai," and "sophistication," and also can be interpreted as a verb, meaning "to go" to theatre, making Theatre Above a place where everyone can appreciate the magic and beauty of theatre.