Li Tianzhu and Yao Kunjun played Cheng Yuxi's biological parents in "Wedding Cheat Sheet", but they always had different opinions on the wedding, causing the bride to be distressed. (Provided by Story Factory)
[Reporter Li Shaoling/Reporting from Taipei] Li Tianzhu, Guo Ziqian, Yao Kunjun, Cheng Yuxi, "Da Fei" Wu Zhiqing, Wei Wenjun, and Liu Shanshan participated in the Story Factory stage play "Cheat Sheet at the Wedding". It was based on a wedding, from pre-wedding preparations to the wedding banquet, and brought to the stage the unspeakable love of a family.
Li Tianzhu and Guo Ziqian played Cheng Yuxi's biological father and adoptive father respectively in "The Wedding Cheat Sheet". Both of them attended the important moments of their daughter's life, reconciled with each other, and finally embarked on a "multi-parent" healing journey. (Provided by Story Factory)
"Cheat Sheet at the Wedding" is adapted from the prose work "Warm Life - Stories of Good Love" published by writer Liu Zhongwei in 2014. The stage play extends the family observation in the original work, taking the wedding as the core, from the process arrangement, family roles to the elders' expectations for the wedding, and writes about the big and small things behind a wedding.
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In "Wedding Cheat Sheet", Cheng Yuxi has been caught in a dilemma between her parents since she picked out the wedding cake. (Provided by Story Factory)
Cheng Yuxi (left) plays a newlywed who is full of longing for marriage in "The Wedding Cheat Sheet" and Wei Wenjun (right). (Provided by Story Factory)
Li Tianzhu and Guo Ziqian play two fathers respectively in the play. Li Tianzhu, the biological father, said, "There are a lot of parents of the girl at the wedding, can you watch?" which pointed out the character's concern about tradition and the outside world. Guo Ziqian, the adoptive father, said, "You deserve a happy wedding," and chose to directly support his daughter. These two sentences also outline the completely different upbringing and relationship styles of the two fathers.
In "Cheat Sheet at the Wedding", Cheng Yuxi hopes that her adoptive father Guo Ziqian, who has taken care of her as an adult, can attend the important moments of her life and no longer be invisible. (Provided by Story Factory)
Cheng Yuxi (second from right) takes her other half Wei Wenjun (right) to the home of her biological father Li Tianzhu (left) to announce the good news in "Wedding Cheat Sheet". (Provided by Story Factory)
This work also looks at how a wedding changes the familiar parent-child relationship from the perspective of a child. When you grow up, some things can no longer be decided by your parents, and some words can no longer be passed on by guesswork. The wedding preparations therefore became a time when the whole family had to talk.
Li Tianzhu (right) strongly objected to his daughter Cheng Yuxi (second from right)'s adoptive father Guo Ziqian delivering a speech at the wedding in "Cheat Sheet for a Wedding". (Provided by Story Factory)
Director Huang Zhikai makes good use of the "chorus" to connect the various difficulties faced by Cai Wei, the heroine of "The Wedding Sheet", in preparing for her wedding. (Provided by Story Factory)
In addition to family issues, "Cheat Sheet at a Wedding" also retains the lively atmosphere of the wedding scene. Through group drama, singing and dancing, and wedding banquet scenes, emotional elaboration and comedy rhythms are intertwined. After the first round of performances in Taipei was sold out, some viewers described it as "like actually attending a wedding" and "we have experienced all the scenes personally", while others shared that "laughed in the first half and cried in the second half". At the end of the performance, what remained in the hearts of the audience was full of touching feelings and the most familiar family routine. "Cheat Sheet for a Wedding" will be held in Keelung during the National Day holiday, and Story Factory also invites the audience to bring their families to the theater.
Story Factory's 24th production "Cheat Sheet for the Wedding" will be performed at the Keelung Performing Arts Center on October 11. Performance and ticket purchase information can be found on the TixFun ticketing website.
