River/Cloud is a supplement to The Peach Blossom Land, and a revisit to what could not be uttered during the Cold War and what was suspended subsequently in the post-Cold War era as well. Interweaving narration and performance to take the audience through four decades of time, the work overlaps histories and memories as well as experiences and imaginations through crisscrossing performances by two sets of actors, exceeding singular facts in the process. Focusing on post-war Taiwan, ordinary individual lives and the state as a collective unit are blended together; whereas everyday life and major historical events are woven as well. Moreover, the elaborate and ingenious design of space enables both actors and memories to surface or submerge into the multi-layered façade stage. Meanwhile, the arrangement of sound, lighting, and performance construct a parallel universe external to the world of the characters. In a grand and profound way, this work responds to the aesthetics, society, history, and world unveiled by Taiwan in the post-war era. (Commentator/WANG Chun-Yen)

Stan LAI and his theatre group, Performance Workshop, debuted Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land in 1986. The iconic work, structured as a story within another, presents a tragedy and a comedy competing for one stage. Jiang Binliu and Yun Zhifan, the two protagonists in Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, met each other, fell in love, and parted in Shanghai in 1948. Forty years later, when they are united in a hospital room in Taipei, they are both in their twilight years.

River/Cloud recounts their lives over four decades of time in an epistolary form, extending the two characters’ inner worlds to map out the contour of a tumultuous period in history. This work is not merely a tribute to the most famous pair of lovers of unrequited passion in modern Taiwan and the Chinese-speaking theatre, but also pays homage to a rather distinctive period in history.

Founded in November 1984, Performance Workshop has created and produced numerous modern plays of profound meanings. The theatre company is a direct and enriching force that elevates Taiwan’s theatre art, and has indirectly brought about the establishment of many new theatre companies as well as new plays, which have led audience back to the theatre. This has made Performance Workshop one of the core groups in Taiwan’s cultural development.