Chimerica

Date/Time
Date(s) - 15 Mar 2017
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Location
Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay, Sydney


GoTheatrical! open captioned performances on Wednesday, 15 March 2017 at 1pm and Friday, 17 March 2017 at 7.30pm

Bookings: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2017/chimerica
For specific access requirements, please call Box Office on (02) 9250 1777 to book your seats, Please let the box office know at the time of booking that you require seats with a good view of the captioning screens.

Sydney Theatre Company and
Colonial First State Global Asset Management present
CHIMERICA
By Lucy Kirkwood

Australian premiere

Everybody needs a hero

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.

Lucy Kirkwood’s exhilarating, filmic script premiered at London’s Almeida Theatre before winning an Olivier Award for Best New Play and going on to an acclaimed West End season. A playwright described by The Independent as “the most rewarding dramatist of her generation”, this is the first time Kirkwood’s work has been seen on the Australian stage.

Our awarding-winning Artistic Director Kip Williams (All My Sons) directs a visually enthralling Australian premiere of this captivating epic. After winning Helpmann Awards in 2016 for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, Mark Leonard Winter (King Lear) features as the photojournalist at the centre of the action, together with Jason Chong (Netflix’s Marco Polo), and a magnificent ensemble cast who are joined by 20 young artists from the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

“This combination of big themes and absorbing characters, of intellectual concerns and strong plot, feels both new and urgent” Daily Telegraph, UK

“Gloriously rich, mind-expanding” The Guardian, UK

Duration 3hrs (including interval)
Content warning Strong language, violence

#STCCHIMERICA

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