CHIMERICA

About the show

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. A playwright described by The Independent as “the most rewarding dramatist of her generation”, 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. Our award-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.