James Karas
Production: CHIMERICA
Author: Lucy Kirkwood
Director: Chris Abraham
Cast: Elena Anciro, Evan Buliung, Jasmine
Chen, Terri Cherniack, Laura Condlln, Kevin Klassen, Paul
Sun-Hyung Lee, Richard Lee, Doug McKeag, Ross
McMillan, Diana Tso, Norman Yeung
Company: Canadian Stage and Royal
Manitoba Theatre Centre
Venue: Bluma
Appel Theatre, St.
Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com
Run: March 31 to April
17, 2016
*** (out of five)
Chimerica has a
great subject and an outstanding opening scene. Joe (Evan Buliung), a young
photojournalist, is stuck in his hotel room in Beijing during the Tiananmen
Square massacres. He is talking with his editor about getting out of China when
he sees a man in a white shirt carrying two shopping bags step in front of a
row of tanks. A miracle happens. The Tank Man, as he becomes known, is not
killed. The photographer takes some pictures and manages to hide the film
before the police breakdown his door and wreck his camera. It’s all fictional
but very dramatic.
The photograph of the Tank Man and the massacre of June 1989 in Tiananmen
Square have become powerful symbols of the repressive brutality of the Communist
regime of China. And it happened while the most populous nation in the world
was growing economically at a phenomenal pace to the extent that its economy is
only second to that of the United Sates. The play’s title is a syncopation of
the words China and America in case someone missed it.
The next scene takes place twenty three years later when the young
photographer is on an airplane going back to China and, following a tip, has
embarked on a search for the identity of the Tank Man.
From then on the play follows two plot strands: finding the identity of
the Tank Man and commenting on China, the United Sates and a number of topics
from the state of newspapers to the morality of journalists.
The production has a revolving stage for the numerous scenes that gives
the feeling of a revolving door play. Some scenes last no more than a few
seconds while others are much longer. The play moves between New York and China
as Joe, ethically and unethically, tries to find his quarry. We have a mystery
clothed in international politics with many current political and social
references. The “current” references are from 2012 when Hilary Clinton was
campaigning for the Democratic Party nomination for president and today, four
years later, she is doing precisely the same thing.
The secret police, the torture, the lack of human rights and the projected
videos give a damning picture of China’s political system. Economic progress is
accompanied by pollution and smog which are officially denied. There is only
fog, says the government, and any suggestion that smog has reached unsafe
levels, is simply propaganda.
Evan Buliung exudes youthful and at times irresponsible enthusiasm and
passion in his search for the Tank Man. He crosses ethical lines, is thrown in
jail and has an erratic affair with Tessa, a market researcher.
Laura Condlin does a good job as Tessa
even if she could not quite produce a convincing English accent.
The play has some 37 scenes and uses projected videos and opaque glass
in some of them. The cast of twelve play more than thirty roles and among the
often noisy background and shifting scenes you need to be on your toes to
follow all the twists and turns of the plots. Kirkwood has written in quite a
bit of humour but in this production it almost never worked. Most of the lines
simply misfired although there were a few that produced the appropriate
laughter.
Kirkwood is nothing if not ambitious. She takes on issues such
photojournalism, the state of newspapers, international trade, human rights,
Sino-American relations and personal relationships. Unfortunately in this
production, directed by Chris Abraham, things get bogged down. There is speed
without momentum or clarity and the result is only an average night at the
theatre.
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