THEATRE – OzAsia – Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land – Playhouse – 4.5K

By Peter Maddern

Arguably the most significant work at this year’s OzAsia Festival has come at its end. Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is regarded as one of China’s top 10 plays of the 20^th century, a masterwork of contemporary Chinese theatre by the acclaimed writer and director, Stan Lai.

It tells of two theatre troupes who believe they are both booked in to rehearse their upcoming production in the same venue. As the poignancy of one collides with the farce of the other, so the two stories come to meld in a touching tale of love lost and of a China before the nationalist split of Taiwan in 1949.

All the cast are in good form with Chu Jr-ying delightful as Yun Zhi Fan in Secret Love and Tang Tsung-sheng as the excitable Lao Tao in Peach Blossom Land.

As a regular reviewer at OzAsia over the years this is perhaps the first time that one might suggest that one of its works would sit well as part of the Adelaide Festival. Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land certainly is of that class.

Kryztoff Rating                     4.5K