上剧场

Performance Schedule

2022.10.5-10.6

Performance venue⊙

SHOAC OPERA HALL

Ticket Prices

¥680, 580, 480, 380, 280, 180

* Children under 1 meter are not allowed to enter.

About Millennium Teahouse

How exactly is the year of 1900 different from any other year?

Two cross-talk performers find themselves in the most desperate situation in the first year of a new millennium.

Theatre Above & SHOAC OPERA HALL

Fusing the past and the present, Stan Lai's Cross-talk classic launches 2022 with joy!

“The Cross-talk Series”, created by Stan Lai and his Performance Workshop in 1985, is no small feat in modern Chinese theatre history. The Series fused traditional Cross-talk (“Xiang Sheng”) elements with contemporary theatre techniques, ushering in a new era of theatre in Taiwan. Apart from its inaugural piece, That Evening, We Performed Cross-talk (1985), the Series went on to include many Lai’s classic comedies such as Look Who’s Cross-talking This Evening (1989) and The Complete History of Chinese Thought (1997). Premiered in 2000, Millennium Teahouse is a piece about the cycle of history and the human experience in the shifts of time. The play has subsequently toured to Beijing and Shanghai in 2002, and has not been revived until now.

After 16 years, Millennium Teahouse made a glorious return to Stan Lai’s Theatre Above in January 2018! And in 2022, it will also embark on a tour. This time, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center and Theatre Above will reopen the Millennium Teahouse in the "Butterfly Orchid" in Pudong.

Synopsis

Set in Beijing, where the art form of Cross-talk originated, Millennium Teahouse follows the fin de siècle journey of two performers. During their performance, a member of the royal family barges in and that changes the game completely. With puns and jokes they cover serious subjects such as history, humanity, and the imminent doom of the Qing Dynasty. When in the second half of the play they time-travel to modern-day Shanghai, the two performers are once again interrupted and the whole thing turns into a most ridiculous mess. Fusing the past and the present together, Millennium Teahouse offers penetrating observations and commentaries on the cycle of history and life.

Written and Directed by Stan Lai

Associate director : Luan Lan

Featuring:

Zong Juntao, Wang Meng, Yang Yuguang, Chen Guohui

Lighting Design: Michael Chien Li-zen

Stage and Costume Design Guidance: Stan Lai

Stage Design: Chen Zhiying

Costume and Make-up Design: Lv Pin

Producer ⊙ Nai-chu Ding

“Millennium Teahouse is an enchanting reflection on both history and life. All jokes and fun aside, the play also evokes a sense of anxiety and helplessness hidden deep down in our souls.”

– Tao Qingmei

“A brilliant play indeed! Think about it, an ever-going Cross-talk performance on the ruins of a demolished theatre, what a melancholy yet romantic image!”

– Richthofen from douban.com

“No one escapes the cycle. Every beginning is also an end. The structure of Millennium Teahouse is absolutely genius and the beginning and the end of the play echo back to each other perfectly, adding to the metaphor of the grand cycle.”

- tmbtmb from douban.com