Debra Li

THE plot may contain clichés and lapse into melodrama, but Taiwan playwright and director Stan Lai is always capable of turning inauspicious material into good drama.

One of China’s leading playwrights, he is able to seamlessly combine popular culture with high art while plucking at the audience’s heartstrings.

“Menage a 13,” which debuted in Taiwan in 1999, will start its mainland tour in Beijing in March, making a second-leg stop in Shenzhen and other major Chinese cities including Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Unlike his previous works staged in Shenzhen — “Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land” and “The Village” with heavy themes and political overture, or the popular crosstalk plays — “Menage a 13” involves a love triangle.

The play stars famous Taiwanese actor Song Shaoqing, and hostess from Hunan Television, Xie Na. Also performing will be young TV actresses Zhou Yang and Deng Jiajia.

“You must be curious as to why it’s 13 rather than the traditional ‘menage a trois,’” Song said in an interview Friday.

“In this play, the married couple has a daughter who is trying to bridge the gap between herself and her parents. And there is the discontented grandfather who tries to find solace in cultivating plants.”

All human relationships are bilateral which further complicates the issues, said the actor. “There is a cliché that marriage is the tomb of love,” he said. “Sadly, it’s often true.”

He compared love to a bank where people could deposit and withdraw credit. “After getting married, you have to continue to deposit money in the bank so that when you quarrel and withdraw from it, your account won’t be emptied. But many of us simply forget and take things for granted.”

Zhou, who will play the mistress in the drama, said her role was also tragic. “Her character started an extramarital affair partly to profit financially from the investment tips the married man gave her. But she also fell in love with him, feeling safe and protected when he was around. If their marriage did not have a problem in the first place, an affair would not set in.”

Xie will play the wife who has a successful TV broadcasting career. Trying to win her husband back, she even debases herself to learn ways of pleasing from the mistress.

The play addresses the perennial issues of love, freedom and ethics in contemporary society.

“In the play, everyone wants love but suffers from the lack of it,” Song said.

“I won’t give you more spoilers, but as in the director’s previous shows, you will see interesting innovations in the stage set that help bring out the theme and feel.”

The Performance Workshop, founded by Lai and his actress wife Ding Nai-chu in 1984, is no stranger to the local audience.

This year, the troupe will also stage the classic “Love in Peach Blossom Land,” crosstalk play “Just Play It” and Ismene Ting’s new work, “This Is True.”

Time: 8 p.m., March 30, 31

Venue: Shenzhen Poly Theater

Venue: Shenzhen Poly Theater, intersection of Wenxin Road 5 and Houhaibin Road, Nanshan District

(南山区后海滨路与文心五路交汇处深圳保利剧院)

Metro: Houhai Station (后海站), Exit E