Chimerica - A term coined by historian Niall Ferguson and economist Moritz Schularick describing the symbiotic relationship between China and America.
As tanks roll through Tiananmen Square, a young man holding shopping bags walks out to block their path. In a hotel a few hundred metres away, a young American photojournalist trains his lens on the scene and captures a piece of history.
It is an image that has come to symbolise courageous and defiant protest, and yet the name of the hero – known simply as Tank Man – has remained a mystery. Twenty years later, a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper that gives a clue to that hero’s identity. Who was the man in front of the tanks? What happened to him? And could he still be alive?
Inspired by one of the 20th century’s most powerful images, Chimerica tracks two decades of complex US-China relations alongside the personal stories that exist beyond the margins of history. At once intimate and geopolitical, it is a gripping thriller, a touching romance, a cracking comedy and a rich drama.
Australian premiere.
A Sydney Theatre Company Production.
Playwright: Lucy Kirkwood
Director: Kip Williams
Chimerica
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Two of the most crucial roles in Chimerica are Zhang Lin as a young man (played by Charles Wu) and his fiancé, Liuli (Jenny Wu), and each performer is impeccable, helping the audience to appreciate the human toll of Tiananmen Square and its lasting scar on both the nation and the world.
Theatre People – Tim Garratt
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Visually and physically visceral, pertinent, provocative, and precise in its performances, and a crystalline view of the pitfalls of globalisation – the international clashing with the traditional, the differences in culture – Chimerica is a triumph of stage writing, stage craft and stage management. Every cast, crew and creative deserves the highest kudos.
Australian Stage – Richard Cotter
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Chimerica grasps you right where it counts and keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout its entire 3-hour duration. There’s not a moment that drags, a moment to be done without- everything is perfectly placed into this complex play.
The AU Review – Kat Czornij
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Chimerica arrived in Sydney laden with expectation and glittering prizes. And this director, company and production have delivered a scintillating version of it.
Stage Noise – Diana Simmonds
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This production is a triumph for everyone involved in it.
The Australian – John McCallum
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The sheer size of this impromptu chorus produces a fissure of energy in a play already cinematic in scope.
The Guardian – Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
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Kip Williams’s production is quite simply breathtaking.
Australian Book Review – Ian Dickson
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The entire cast is excellent.
Daily Review – Ben Neutze
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The cast is tireless and uniformly excellent.
Time Out – Cassie Tongue
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An inspired production peppered with dark humour.
The Music – Liz Giuffre
A fascinating discussion about the epic thriller Chimerica, and the challenges in staging this ambitious production.
Listen to Artistic Director Kip Williams and cast members Charles Wu and Jenny Wu talk to Michael Cathcart, host of Radio National's Books and Arts Daily.
The interview is peppered with archive audio from June 1989 as the Tiananmen protests were reported in Australia, including a moving clip of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke's national address.
ABC Books and Arts
The Sydney Morning Herald
Elissa Blake interviews Anthony Brandon Wong and Jenny Wu on the changing nature of Australia's major theatre companies.
Actor and dancer Jenny Wu is making her Sydney Theatre Company debut in Chimerica, which is having its Australian premiere season. She says she never thought it would happen.
"I was doing a playwriting workshop at STC and a colleague walked by and she said: 'don't even think about working here, they never stage anything that's diverse'."
'Chimerica', Wu says, will hopefully change that perception for good.
Simon Foster interviews Jenny Wu tracking her career from NIDA through to working in China and now the upcoming MainStage STC production of Chimerica.
Since graduating from the nation’s premiere acting school, Jenny Wu has forged a unique niche for herself in the Australasian sector as an actor determined to challenge the established stereotypes. The Chinese-born/Sydney-bred actress has crewed on an action blockbuster in the Gobi Desert; shot in the freezing chill of the northern Chinese countryside and on the steamy streets of Hong Kong; worked with two of this country’s most acclaimed directors; and, is preparing for her professional stage debut in a award-winning play being staged by Australia’s most respected theatre company. Ahead of what promises to be a rewarding 2017, Jenny Wu spoke with candour to SCREEN-SPACE about her craft, career and choosing the most challenging path as an artist…
SCREEN-SPACE
