14 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010 • TIMES BY Alita Rickards DRAMA stop Sex, lines and

compiled BY David Chen no videotape hen rumors emerged last Ethan Ruan is staying in weekend that Jerry Yan school — and out of the scar Wilde once said he regarded “the theater as (言承旭) had been born out military. Photo: Taipei Times the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate Wof wedlock, the TV actor and way in which a human being can share with another singer responded with a vague (半島音樂盛世演唱 Othe sense of what it is to be a human being.” It is with acknowledgement that turned into 會), according to that sense of sharing the human experience that Taipei a tribute to his mother. our sister paper the Players was founded in 2008 by two expatriate Canadians “I don’t really know [if the Liberty Times. seeking an outlet for English-language theater in . rumors are true] but I don’t think But her singing This weekend in Taipei the group will be holding its it’s important,” Yan said at a was the last thing fourth production, An Evening of Shorts III, comprised of Children’s Day charity event the media was four comedic shorts each between 10 and 30 minutes long. on Sunday. interested in. For Brook Hall, who directs one of the shorts, there “My mother worked hard to Reporters were “was a gaping hole in the lack of contemporary theater raise me, and I never robbed, dying to know in Taipei, especially for an English-speaking audience” PERFORMANCE notes: I never stole. She is my role when Sun is before Taipei Players was founded. “My day job is model,” he said. “No matter what, going to finally working with various Taiwanese theater companies,” What: Taipei Players, An Evening of Shorts III I’ll support her and I hope when marry “mustache man” (鬍鬚男), he said. “It’s hard enough to be a Taiwanese theater I grow older I can make her even aka Nadim van der Ros, the Dutch company in 2010, but there is no pre-conceived notion or When: Tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm and more proud of me.” beau she’s been dating for three path whatsoever for a foreigner-run operation.” Above: The battle of the sexes continues in Wedding Story. 7:30pm The 33-year old heartthrob years. Was a secret marriage in He credits Taipei Players founders Mandy Rovenda Right: Uncovering the true story behind “recovering” homosexuals in 牯嶺街小劇 talked about growing up in a one- the works? “When we have the and Sarah Zittrer for being “unbelievably passionate about Room 69. Photos Courtesy of Mouse Chen Where: Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre ( parent household that struggled time, and of course we won’t getting the word out, getting people motivated and finding 場), 2, Ln 5, Guling St, Taipei City (台北市牯嶺街5巷2號) to pay the bills and also revealed be telling you when,” said an what was necessary to launch the company last year.” Partlow. “I can’t say that I have quite the amount of energy he was offered work during high uncharacteristically shy Sun. The piece he is directing, The Game, by Dennis that Doris has, but I really admire her passion, even if it’s Admission: NT$300 in advance or NT$400 at school as a gigolo. Ethan Ruan (阮經天) has been Noble, was written in the 1970s and is “near and dear” misplaced. It’s fun to play such an angry woman.” the door He turned the offer down catching flack lately, not for to his heart. Hall saw the play when he was still in high Brandon Thompson, frontman for indie-rock group but admitted that he was highly cheating on his girlfriend as school but doesn’t want to say too much about it: “I hope Sons of Homer, stars in the only monologue of the Details: Advance tickets can be purchased from tempted, especially after watching alleged last month, but for being audiences get to experience the same thing I did when night, Matt Mayerchak’s The Great Outdoors, in which both Toasteria locations, at 2, Ln 248, Zhongxiao E his friends who got into the in school. I first saw it,” he said. “There are certain plays that you the character pursues the woman of his dreams on Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段248巷2號) or business driving expensive cars. The star of the hit gangster will remember 24 hours, a week, maybe even a month a NordicTrack. 1, Ln 72, Yunhe St, Taipei City (台北市雲和街72巷1號). “I remembered what my flick Monga (艋舺) has been later, and I think this is one of them.” Actor Thomas van Niekerk narrates in The Wedding The performances contain adult content and are not mother told me: ‘A poor man enrolled at Hsing Wu College (醒吾 Another of the plays being shown, Room 69 by Story, by Julianne Homokay, which has Zittrer facing recommended for audiences younger than 16 must keep his integrity. Whatever 科技學院) for six years, prompting Bruce Ward, features actress Katie Partlow who has off against Ben Cunningham in a not-quite fairy-tale you do, don’t let yourself down speculation that he has avoided been studying for her MFA in acting at Taipei National romance. The play itself is a comedy, but in rehearsal On the Net: www.taipeiplayers.com and don’t let others down.’ So graduating in order to stall his University of the Arts (國立臺北藝術大學) since 2008. things got taken to another level when Niekerk flubbed I said I wasn’t interested,” said compulsory military service. She has been in all of the Players’ previous shows and the line “It was a real ego boost to have snagged up a hot Yan. “Besides, if I really went and The Apple Daily did some said that it “provides a different voice for the English- stud 11 years younger than she,” and said instead “It was actors and the response of those watching. did that, my mom would have digging and found that Ruan is speaking community in Taiwan.” a real ego boost to have snagged up a hot 11-year-old “Coming to see theater in general gives everyone killed me.” in good company. Entertainers In Room 69, which is based on a recovering stud,” to the chagrin and shocked laughter of the cast. involved a sense of being in the moment,” said Partlow. One of Yan’s former Joseph Cheng (鄭元暢), Mike Ho homosexuals group meeting, she plays Doris, a woman This is one of the charms of live theater — that it is “You can’t download us and watch us later. You’re bandmates from boy band F4, (賀軍翔) and Chang Shu-wei (張書 having problems with her sexual identity. “She is driven not prerecorded, but raw, influenced by the moods of either there in the theater laughing hysterically or Van Ness Wu (吳建豪), was spotted 偉) are fellow Hsing Wu students by her anger, her passion and her internal fears,” said both cast and audience, by the talent and foibles of the you’re not.” in Hong Kong last weekend with who have also been enrolled for a new girlfriend. six years. Paparazzi stalked the couple But the real kings among BY BRADLEY WINTERTON at a shopping mall in Central celebrity draft-dodgers, the report M u s i c District and the Apple Daily said, are pop idols Matthew Lin posted video footage on its Web (明道), who is entering his ninth site, which began with a shot year of school, and Bobby Dou of the Taiwanese American (竇智孔), who has been enrolled in Strings attached singer and mystery girl looking university for 10 years. amorously at each other while Actress Shu Qi (舒淇) has nne-Sophie Mutter is a special figure in the riding an escalator. been discovering her inner world of classical music. A child prodigy on the PERFORMANCE notes: The pursuit culminated at a otaku. The starlet has become violin, she was taken up by Herbert von Karajan clothing boutique when Wu’s addicted to the Facebook game Awho conducted her in a performance with his Berlin sweetheart discovered cameras Happy Farm. She fessed up to Philharmonic Orchestra when she was only 13. She What: Mercedes-Benz Classical Music Festival pointed their way and ducked her obsession in a recent posting subsequently went on to enjoy an international career, — Anne-Sophie Mutter Festival (世紀古典音樂年 behind the counter. Aww, isn’t on her official blog: “I check recording numerous works and performing worldwide. 2010系列 — 安．蘇菲．慕特音樂節) that cute? She’s not used to the [my farm] when I get up in the Her current series of Taiwan concerts, plus a master media, was the tone of the Apple morning, I check before I go to class, is part of a short Asian tour — she will go from When: Evening of Brahms: today at 7:30pm (Taipei) Daily video report. bed. When I go out to eat, I think here to Shanghai, and then on to Japan. and tomorrow at 7:30pm (). Evening Wu played it cool and spoke about that farm and often find In Taiwan, Mutter will play Brahms’ three violin of Dvorak: Sunday at 7:30pm () and to the reporters, avoiding their myself saying, ‘I have to go ... you sonatas (with Lambert Orkis, piano) in Taipei tonight, Wednesday at 7:30pm (Taipei) questions about his companion. guys keeping eating, I have to get and in Kaohsiung tomorrow night. She will then play But later on he confirmed through back to my harvest.’” Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor with the National Where: National Concert Hall, Taipei City; his manager that she was indeed Pop Stop concludes this week Taiwan Symphony Orchestra under Michael Francis in Kaohsiung’s Chih-teh Hall (高雄市文化中心至德堂), his new girlfriend. with a nod to Taiwan’s latest Taichung on Sunday and in Taipei on Wednesday. In 67 Wufu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市五福一路 Wu’s manager wouldn’t reveal YouTube star, Lin Yu-chun (林 addition she will give a violin master class on Tuesday. 67號); Taichung’s Chungshan Hall (台中市中山堂), 98 her name but offered a few 育群), who has been dubbed by For some reason, although the term “piano sonata” Syueshih Rd, Taichung City (台中市學士路98號) details. Ms “A” (as in Ms “ABC” or UK newspaper the Daily Mail as always means a work for solo piano, “violin sonata” American-born Chinese) is 25 years “Taiwan’s Susan Boyle.” generally means a work for violin and piano. Brahms Admission: NT$1,200 to NT$4,800, available old, 160cm tall, and a Christian. Lin, a chubby young man who wrote three such sonatas (there was another, written in through ERA ticketing or online at www.ticket.com.tw Pop Stop wonders whether Wu, a calls himself “Little Fatty” (小胖), his youth, that he destroyed). The first two of them are recent convert, has started to look sported a bowl haircut and bow tie in three movements, the third in four. This final sonata is for a loophole in that “celibacy while singing a stunning rendition the most taxing and complex of the three. card” he signed in 2008. of the Whitney Houston/Dolly Orkis is a frequent collaborator of Mutter’s, and earlier in A Minor. Who knows, perhaps her playing it in Meanwhile, Stefanie Sun (孫燕 Parton hit I Will Always Love You often accompanied the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Taiwan will be a prelude to an eventual recording 姿) was in Kenting to perform at a on the TV singing contest show Mutter and Orkis’ new CD of the three Brahms sonatas release. The work, though less popular than Dvorak’s Spring Scream weekend event. The One Million Star (超級星光大道). was released last month by Deutsche Grammophon. They Cello Concerto in B Minor, is well-known, and was Singaporean pop singer raked in The video can be viewed at can be seen discussing this music on Mutter’s official Web given a stellar rendition by Chinese violinist Siqing Lu Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter received the International Ernst von a cool NT$3 million for playing at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA- site (www.anne-sophie-mutter.com). (呂思清) in Taipei in October 2006 with the Evergreen Siemens Music Prize in 2008. She plays four concerts in Taiwan . the Peninsula Pop Music Concert tOsM6F4Y&feature=channel Mutter has never recorded Dvorak’s Violin Concerto Symphony Orchestra. PhotO: Bloomoberg

RE S TA U RANT S BY Catherine Shu BY David Chen

Very Thai 非常泰 NEO19 branch on’t let the name fool you. with cilantro, minced chili pepper The wait staff, mostly college Diantai Shifu (滇泰食府), or and garlic. student-aged women, often holler Address: 2F, 22 Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路22號2樓) “Palace of Thai and Yunnan The Thai shrimp cakes (月亮蝦餅, orders to the kitchen staff in Thai and Telephone: (02) 8789-6200 On the Net: www.verythai.com.tw Cuisine,”D looks nothing like a palace. NT$169) were also a favorite at our were polite and efficient when serving Open: 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm, closes at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays But the restaurant makes up for its table, but another deep-fried option, our table. Our waitress didn’t hesitate Average meal: NT$500 to NT$700 plus 10 percent service charge unremarkable decor by offering the Thai-style spring rolls (泰式春捲, when we asked to hold the chili on Details: Chinese and English menu. Check Very Thai’s Web site for information on the chain’s other branches decent Thai fare at reasonable prices. NT$100) failed to impress. They had certain dishes or make vegetarian Diantai Shifu, located near Guangfu a bland filling (mostly rice noodles) versions of others. Everything arrived at South and Zhongxiao East roads, used and were too oily. These shortcomings the table promptly and as requested. to be part of Yunxiang (雲鄉), a small might not be as noticeable if Though dining at Diantai Shifu is ery Thai’s (非常泰) three locations (in a savory-sweet sauce. The other two chain of budget Thai restaurants. Not accompanied with beer — tall bottles of probably best with four or more people Sogo Tianmu, Xinyi District’s NEO19 items, however, were lackluster. The much has changed, at least judging Taiwan Beer and regular-sized bottles as you can order a wider variety of and on Fuxing North Road (復興 shrimp cakes had very little flavor, even by the menu, which still bears the of Heineken are NT$80 each. Sadly, dishes, couples can find a good deal V北路)) are sleek almost to the point of after being dipped in the accompanying old name. there are no Thai brews available. too. On a separate visit, my dining sterile. With a predominantly black and sweet-and-sour sauce. The egg rolls Very Thai serves excellent Thai classics in a hip Family-style dishes range from Those with adventurous palates companion and I spent just under luminous green color scheme, the walls were slightly spicy, but also forgettable. environment. Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times NT$100 to NT$180. The selection is might enjoy the prawns with glass NT$500 for four dishes, which included are pasted over with pages taken from My main course, the grilled boneless extensive, so when in doubt or in a vermicelli noodles (冬粉蝦煲, NT$169), a tasty Yunnan-style egg omelet with Pop and other arty fashion magazines, short ribs with Thai dip (NT$320), made hurry, go for the menu’s starred items, which are cooked in a sauce that had bamboo shoots (雲筍烘蛋, NT$100). while the wait staff is bedecked in sharp up for the appetizer plate. Each slice of having scraped half of it off. mostly popular Southeast Asian dishes. a subtle herbal flavor that resembled Located a three-minute walk from black suits and crisp shirts. beef, served simply with a spicy dipping The sea bass’ light yet zippy lemon There were a couple of duds out of the xiancao (仙草). Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall MRT Despite the restaurant’s painfully sauce, was cooked to flavorsome, melt- sauce provided a welcome contrast 14 items we ordered, but everything The cold raw prawns (涼拌生蝦, Station (國父紀念館捷運站) exit No. 1, hip interior, its menu features excellent in-your-mouth perfection. to the fish. Fortunately, the coconut else passed muster. NT$149) are well worth a try. The Diantai Shifu offers a quick fix for a Thai classics. Spicy dishes are sweat- On a separate visit, my companion milk in our mellow, creamy green The dapao zhurou (打拋豬肉, crustaceans, topped with a potent cheap family-style meal. inducingly piquant, curries are creamy and I ordered a Jim Thompson shrimp curry, filled with sauteed chicken NT$100) — ground pork stir-fried dressing of lemon juice, chopped and rich, fish is tender, and meats are salad (NT$300), Thai-style raw shrimp strips and plenty of Thai basil, soothed with basil and onions — was the top garlic, chili pepper and cilantro, melt juicy. Very Thai also distinguishes itself (NT$300), green curry chicken in our tongues. favorite among our party of 10 persons. in the mouth and had a rich, almost with a drinks menu offering 30 beers coconut sauce (NT$280) and steamed Very Thai’s signature dessert is With this many people, order two buttery flavor. imported from 12 countries, including sea bass in lemon sauce (NT$480). its homemade ice cream (NT$120). servings of this simple but tasty dish. But pass on this house specialty: Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Austra- The Jim Thompson salad (named The large coconut flavored scoop we Another starred item that steamed fish with lemon 清蒸檸檬魚( , lia, the US and, of course, Thailand. after the American founder of the ordered (mango and durian are also disappeared quickly was the jiaomaji NT$179). The lemon and garlic sauce The restaurant’s appetizer menu Thai Silk Company) was the blandest available) was well complemented with (椒麻雞, NT$129), crispy fried chicken tasted fresh and tangy, but it couldn’t features the basic fried golden shrimp dish. Sliced cherry tomatoes, diced slices of fruit hidden inside. The “ruby served on a bed of coleslaw and topped hide the mediocre quality of the fish. cakes (NT$250), pork or chicken satay cucumber and steamed prawns were fruit” (small balls of plump and firm (NT$220) and fried egg rolls (NT$160). tossed and marinated in a tart dressing pomegranate-flavored jelly) in coconut I opted for the Very Thai Combo that lacked aroma. But the Thai-style milk with crushed ice (NT$90) was (NT$380), with fried shrimp cakes, egg raw shrimp certainly atoned for the also excellent. I had Very Thai’s Diantai Shifu 滇泰食府 rolls and chicken wrapped in orchid leaf. salad. Each shellfish was butterflied, signature mojito (NT$170) with my The latter is available as a stand-alone with a heap of minced garlic, chili meal, but I should have saved the Address: 1, Ln 180, Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路180巷1號) Diantai Shifu’s prawns with glass vermicelli dish for NT$280 and was wonderful. peppers and various spices scooped on very sweet (and only slightly citrusy) Telephone: (02) 8771-3188 Open: 11am to 2pm and 5pm to 9pm noodles. photo: David Chen, Taipei Times The meat was succulent and glazed in top. The garnish left us sweating even cocktail for dessert. Average meal: NT$250 to NT$350