First Night Astonishing slice of history with a warped, twisted bond at its heart

With China high on the news agenda, Amy Ng’s play is timely, and though it’s not a great piece of drama, it tells a great story briskly and efficiently.

- NICK CURTIS CHIEF THEATRE CRITIC

Spanning six decades, it tracks the interwoven history of two women pivotal in the political and cultural upheavals of Mao Zedong's revolution, but whose stories are little-known here.

An 80-minute two-hander, directed by Katie Posner in a co-production between the Kiln and Paines Plough, it necessarily features more exposition than character development. It begins in a Shanghai theatre in 1935. Lan Ping (Gabby Wong) has hoiked herself out of poverty to become an actress famed for her performance in Ibsen's A Doll's House. Li Lin (Millicent Wong) is a young communist seeking sanctuary from a government crackdown. An improbable bond is formed, which warps and twists but never breaks. Lan transforms into Jiang Qing, Mao's fourth wife, cultural enforcer and attack dog. Li is revealed to be “red princess” Sun Weishi, China's first female theatre director.