Chimerica

A FAR-REACHING AND EXHILIRATING EPIC

Newly transferred to the West End after its first run at the Almeida Theatre, Chimerica took Olivier Award-winning playwright Lucy Kirkwood 6 years to write. Her efforts resulted in an extraordinarily ambitious and richly entertaining piece that ranges, as the title suggests, from China to America.

The play signifies Kirkwood's graduation from exciting young writer to major player and is stunningly well-staged with cinematic fluidity under acclaimed director Lyndsey Turner's supervision. An inspired revolving stage design by Es Devlin, designer of the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony, allows for a smooth and effortless transition between scenes and locations. At its heart, this production is not only a geo-political commentary, but also a touching love story and a profound study of human nature.

WHAT IS CHIMERICA ABOUT?

The story begins in 1989 when young American photo-journalist Joe takes one of the most legendary photographs in history - a brave and unknown man standing in front of a tank in the Tiananmen Square protests. The action then jumps forward to China in 2012, where Zhang Lin, a friend of Joe's, suggests the protester in the picture may still be alive and living in New York. Joe is determined to find him and so begins a thrilling journey that crosses continents.

The action moves rapidly between China and America at a fast and witty pace and finding 'Tank Man', as he has come to be known, becomes Joe's primary obsession. As he comes closer to the truth Joe makes morally compromising decisions but this, coupled with his genuine idealism, paints a portrait of a muddled antihero driven by an uncontrollable fixation.