Taiwan drama's newest version promises laugh riot

Veteran Taiwan director Stan Lai's hit comic drama, Love on A Two-Way Street, also titled He and His Two Wives, has delighted audiences for a decade. Now, a new version featuring many of China's comic actors is coming to Beijing.

Lai is art director and stage set designer for this version, with the director's chair being occupied by actress-director Ismene Ting, who has played in such Lai classics as Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land and Red Sky.

Inspired by the British comedy Run for Your Wife, Lai's Love on A Two-Way Street, which premiered in Taiwan in 1997 and was staged in Shanghai in 1999, centers on a man who shuttles between two wives. Everything is well under control until an accident involving a mafia's video turns his life upside down.

The play has been touring Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Singapore for more than 10 years to critical acclaim.

Ting, who has been directing the play since 2009, graduated from University of California, Berkley. Her debut directorial work, Finding Shangri-La, in 2009, was produced by Lai.

She says Love on A Two-Way Street evokes the same reactions in the mainland as in Taiwan.

Mainland actor Yu Entai, who rose to fame by starring in the kungfu comedy TV series My Own Swordsman, will play the lead role in the play.