Caught Stan Lai's Sand and a Distant Star (Zai na yao yuan de xing qiu, yi li sa) starring TV's favourite taiwanese host Chang xiao yan, Ah liang and Ah ya, as well as well known theater director/action, Jin Shi Jie (from An Lian Tao Hua Yuan). It was a great play, despite being a little too long (2 1/2hr without intermission), about a street vendor Ye ying (Xiao Yan) who wavered between being sane and insane after her husband disappeared. She claimed that her husband has been abducted by aliens and would come back on Sept 5, 2003, 11.42pm though there has been news that he has abandon his wife and daughter for the last 20 years and remarried in Shanghai. As the day drew nearer, she became more awaken to the "reality" that perhaps her husband may never returned and contemplated going to look for him if he doesn't.

Her daughter, Guaiguai (Ah ya) thought that her mother was insane and was attempting to make a documentary on her with the help of her boyfriend Ah Gao, who came up with the idea of staging a reunion on Sept 5 by getting some actors to play the alien and missing husband and filming them.

Xiao Fan (Ah Liang) was another street vendor working alongside Ye Ping whose Vietnamese wife had ran away from him after he beaten her up. He searched the whole city for her with Ye Ping.

Lao Qian (Jin Shi Jie) was a rich drunkard who had abandoned his terminally ill wife in USA because he couldn't cope with watching her suffer.

Each and everyone had suffered loss in some ways either through disappearance, abandonment or death. Even the daughter was similiarly "abandoned" by her escapist mother who had created an "ideal" daughter in her own little world of aliens and a distant star called Penefere. In the end, everyone had a closure through laughter and tears: Lao Qian finally plucked up the courage to say "sorry" to his wife (in the form of Ye Ping as he acted the abducted husband in Ah Gao's scripted reunion), Xiao Fan finally saw his wife again, GuaiGuai finally understood and accepted her mother while Ye Ping finally "met" her husband in the final act and disappeared from Taipei after that.

As to whether Ye ying's husband was really abducted by aliens was secondary though the play resolved the issue by leaning rather heavily on the fact that the abduction was true when Guaiguai received a postcard sometime later (in the epilogue) from her mother, post dated from Penefere. It has a picture of her mother and someone who looked like her father looking happy together. A video played on the screen behind showed the two smiling before an alien bounced into the frame.

I thought that was really giving too much away and the epilogue was totally unnecessary. I would rather have Ye ying just disappeared after that surreal scene where her husband apparently came back from another planet for a short visit. Everyone acted well, esp Chang Xiao Yan, in her portrayal of an escapist woman and her relationship with her daughter actually made me teared a few times as they attempted to come to terms with each other. Ah ya was mavellous as her daughter(s) - alternating between the rebellious "real" daughter and the ideal "fake" daughter. Jin Shi Jie as the drunkard Lao Qian brought a poignancy to a middle-aged "macho" man who was tortured by the sight of his wife dying as well as his abandonment of her in the hospital. Even Ah Liang's typical earthy humour (akin to his comic hosting style on tv) showed a vulnerable side in his search for his wife which made the audience feel for him.

After the play, we had the chance to stay for another 1/2 hour as the director and actors shared their experience with the audience and answered some questions. I really enjoyed myself despite my cold and recommend anyone to go watch it though it has ended its run today (only 2 shows, on the 31st and 1st of feb).