Chimerica Lucy Kirkwood
Introduction
‘This is a dazzling, thoughtful, wonderfully ambitious drama that, in a world saturated with imagery,
considers the truths behind one picture.’ - Sarah Hemming, The Financial Times
Lucy Kirkwood wrote Chimerica over a six-year period. It had its premiere production at the Almeida Theatre, in a co-production with
Headlong Theatre in May 2013, before transferring to the West End later that same year. It won the Evening Standard Award and Laurence
Olivier Awards for Best New Play and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
This epic play – told in five acts and thirty-nine scenes – has a running time of nearly three hours but it engages the audience through the sophistication of its writing. At its heart, it is a political drama, but it plays out on a personal level – it has elements of the thriller, romance and comic genres.
It tells the story of Joe Schofield, who, in 1989, was in a hotel room overlooking Tiananmen Square where he was able to snap a version of the famous ‘Tank Man’ photograph. In 2012, after a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper, Joe is driven to find out the identity of the man in the photograph. The play moves seamlessly between the two time periods and locations.
Economist Niall Ferguson and Historian Moritz Schularick first coined the word ‘chimerica’ in 2006 to describe the significant economic relationship between China and America. The play touches onthis interrelationship and the differences between Western and Eastern culture.
In an interview with Time Out magazine, Lucy Kirkwood said that one of the reasons why she wrote the play was:
‘…what kept rearing its head slightly was this liberal carefulness around China, when people thought, “It’s
not that bad, is it?” And I felt it was.’
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Later in the interview, she goes on to add that:
‘…it’s much more a play about the West than it is about China.’
Critical reception for the original production was outstanding with many touting it the best play of the year. One critic wrote:
Chimerica is dizzying in its scope and invention, exhilarating in the potency and intelligence of its ideas,
and relentless in its narrative grip. Part cinematic thriller, part East Asian ghost story, wholly absorbing,
it tackles global socioeconomics with a verve and visual flair that ensure every second pulses with urgent
life.
The Main Characters
There are over 35 speaking roles in the play along with various non-speaking parts. In the original production, this was performed by a cast of twelve. Below you will find an insight into some of the central characters.
Joe Schofield
Joe Schofield is the protagonist of the play. At the age of 18 he was in a hotel room overlooking Tiananmen
Square where he was able to take the famous ‘Tank
Man’ picture. Now in his early forties, he is idealistic
(Tessa asks him if he ever steps outside his pious, holier-than-thou, sanctimonious pedestal) and extremely confident. He is single and is the eternal bachelor (Frank suggests that he should ‘settle down’). He is used to winning women over with his charm and, one presumes, his good looks. When he and Tessa go out for dinner (Act One, Scene Seven) he is taken aback when she declares that it isn’t a date. This would be an interesting scene to rehearse in class, particularly to see the change in his use of voice and gesture after she declares her platonic intentions. As is the nature of these things, their relationship moves beyond this over the course of the play.
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Mel Stanwyck
Mel Stanwyck is a colleague of Joe. He conforms to stereotypical masculine behaviour; all talk, cynicism and bravado. His sexism (calling Tessa ‘sweetheart’) contrasts with Joe’s more modern manner. He is slightly older than Joe and sees through Joe’s recklessness. However, he is friendly and jokey, unlike Joe’s more earnest approaches. The relationship between Joe and Mel is one of good mates. In rehearsal, students should consider what their physicality is like around their friends; that is, what sort of gestures, movements, body positions (sitting and standing), facial expressions are used in informal settings. These could be used to rehearse an exchange between Joe and Mel, such as Act Two, Scene One.
Tessa Kendrick
Joe and Mel first meet Tessa Kendrick on a flight to Beijing. She is English and is established quickly as a ballsy character with her opening line ‘a pansy with hair on his chest’ – a snide dig at Mel’s attitude and behaviour. She works in market research and consumer profiling. She is confident and more than holds her own in conversation with Joe, as can be seen in the following exchange:
TESSA: Well, you seemed quite fond of me when your arse was banging against the hand dryer of a 747.
JOE: Hey, listen, that was an act of charity. I’ve been cavity searched on the border of Russia, it was more fun.
TESSA: You are so full of shit.
JOE: I don’t have to like someone to have sex with them. You were scared, I just met you, what am I gonna do, assassinate your character at thirty thousand feet?
TESSA: Mel gave it his best shot.
JOE: Yeah well, Mel’s an asshole.
TESSA: Yeah well, at least he’s honest about that. (p41)
The relationship between Tessa and Joe warms as the play progresses, as they move from their initial business interactions to a messy romantic entanglement.
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She is the most significant female character in the play. Act Four, Scene Seven, consists of a speech in which she addresses, linked to her work market research, the relationship between China and America.
She says:
‘…China is not the drunk girl at the frat party. She’s the business major with an A-plus average, and really
great hair. She’s in charge of this brave new economic world, you bend to her or you die trying.’
She goes on to add:
‘...China’s moving faster than we can collect the data, I mean, this is a nation that’s gone from famine to
Slim-Fast in one generation.’
This is quite an important scene as it makes explicit some of the themes and ideas of the play. It would be useful to spend some time in lesson breaking the scene down and considering what Kirkwood is trying to say here. What does this moment indicate about Tessa’s own character development?
Zhang Lin
Zhang Lin is Joe’s main contact in China. The audience sees him at two stages of his life – in 1989, as a young man, and in 2012, as an English teacher. He still grieves for his deceased wife, despite the long passage of time and his brother’s best efforts to cheer him up. He is haunted by her image; and she
‘appears’ from inside his refrigerator – the significance of which we find out in a flashback. He makes some reckless decisions in his quest to find out the truth about air pollution which results in him being arrested. He is not afraid to speak out against the communist regime, with Act Five opening with him saying:
‘We call for a Party that refuses to get rich on our blood. We call for a Party that puts its people over its
profits. We call for a Party that does not turn a blind eye as young men walking wheezing upstairs. We call
for these things, at the top of our voices, while there is still breath in our lungs to do so.’
This public dissent has consequences for him with security cameras mounted outside his apartment. It is only at the end of the play that we discover that he is the Tank Man in the picture.
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Liuli
Liuli is Zhang Lin’s fiancée, killed during the protests. We only see her in flashback: she is young and pregnant. This is Liuli as Zhang Lin remembers her, so this is an idealistic vision of this woman. It may be important in rehearsal to consider how these flashback scenes are played. Are they naturalistic like the scenes set in the present or do they have a more ‘dreamlike’ or hyperreal atmosphere to them?
Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei is Zhang Lin’s brother and Benny’s father. He works as a foreman in a factory. Unlike his brother, he believes in the Communist Party and this conflict of opinion creates much drama between these two characters.
Frank Hadley
Frank Hadley is in his late fifties and is the editor of a major American newspaper. He is realistic about the changes to the newspaper industry (‘I don’t even have the money for our food critic to review anywhere you don’t BYOB. Our revenues are down eleven percent’ P34) and rejects Joe’s idea for a story about the ‘Tank
Man’ until there is an American angle to it. This is a man who once protested against Vietnam but is now too caught up in a complex corporate world, where the publication of Joe’s story could be dangerous.
Despite his confidence, he is world weary and angry about the state of affairs – not that he feels there is much he can do about this.
Maria Dubiecki
Maria Dubiecki is a Democrat senator in her fifties. She is a confident woman with a sense of humour
(‘I’m running on about four hours sleep a night these days, but I sleep in a Tupperware box, and eat nothing but steamed kale so.’ P51). She is an important character as she helps Joe to trace someone who has details about the Tank Man – even if he has to resort to blackmail to get her to reveal the information.
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Themes & Issues East vs. West
As the title suggests, the key idea the play explores is the relationship between China and America. A good starter activity in class would be to get students to brainstorm everything they already know about these two countries and perhaps highlight similarities and clear differences. Some research into both of these countries in the 21st century would be helpful in enhancing a student’s understanding of the play.
Kirkwood addresses how much China has changed since the 1980s:
JOE: Very funny. I mean it, you should come to New York.
ZHANG LIN: What for? Starbucks? Cockroaches? I can get both of those here.
JOE: Sure, and Walmart and McDonald’s, / I know, it’s turning into America, but –
ZHANG LIN: You have Walmart. Why are we not allowed Walmart?
JOE: One with none of the good parts, don’t you want those things?
ZHANG LIN: Things here are okay. Better. You know how much has changed, how fast?
(p26)
However, the contrast between the two countries is not presented as a simple binary and it is important that students do not see the China presented in the play as ‘bad’ to America’s ‘good’. For instance, Zhang
Lin embodies the dissenting side of the Chinese people and we see a broad cross section of the American population (from prostitutes to a man being arrested in Harlem). The play is effective because it presents a balanced but honest picture of these two superpowers.
Ethics of Journalism Quoting Susan Sontag, the printed text starts with the phrase ‘Images transfix. Images anaesthetise.’
The play explores the idea of photographs being the evidence of a historical event and the way in which the public digest them. Are these images disposable? What becomes of the people depicted in them?
By setting the play in two periods, in between the importance of professional photographers and the present, when anyone with a mobile phone can record historical moments, it allows the audience to consider the value we place on a news image.
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The play also questions the ethics of journalism. There is the complexity of portraying an event accurately and from whose perspective a story is told. Reading the code of ethics from the Society of Professional
Journalists, and then linking it to the decisions made by Joe and Mel in the play would stimulate some interesting discussion.
Take for instance the exchange below. What does this say about what is reported in the press?
JOE:…If we find him. What’s the first question you’d ask?
MEL: Okay, good, number one: what did he say to the soldier in the tank? Number two: what was in his shopping bags, number three: what does he eat for breakfast?
JOE: You’d ask the Unknown Hero whether he has toast or cereal?
MEL: See, this is what you don’t understand about writing, it’s the detail, it’s the human interest, the small intimacies of great souls – (p.51) The Environment
Some of the most interesting scenes are those that do not include any dialogue. In Act One, Scene Seven,
Zhang Lin’s neighbour enters:
‘She’s in her late fifties but has the air of a more elderly woman. She carries her groceries in two shopping
bags. Her wheezing breath is audible as trudges slowly towards her apartment. She sounds like a broken
accordion.’ (p37)
By not giving this character a voice here, the play parallels the situation in China where many people feel powerless. This scene also initiates the theme of the environment and pollution that becomes more significant as the play progresses. We finally meet the neighbour, Ming Xiaoli in Act Two, Scene Eight, where she is clearly resigned to her fate as she talks about her own funeral arrangements.
Pollution in Beijing is referred to throughout the text and most damningly, the lack of concern shown by the Communist Party. The fact suggests that what is more important is the front that everything is ok, when the reality is far from that.
TESSA: In Beijing. They fire rockets, into the sky, to disperse the clouds. If they don’t want it to rain, then it doesn’t. Terrifying. (p.64)
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Critical Response / Productions
Despite the positive reviews, there were a few criticisms from critics (more so from the North
American productions) that the play ‘traffics in plenty of stereotypes.’
Chimerica is one of the most significant and acclaimed new plays of the twenty-first century and it has many elements that will sustain student interest, making it an excellent choice for Component
3. As one critic wrote:
‘It’s blistering theatre; elegant, crammed with wit and insight, and explosively exciting. Essential.’
Useful Links https://bit.ly/2V8RfXd
Details about the original production https://bit.ly/346lgdX
Timelapse of the set build for the West End transfer https://bit.ly/3aFH4Q8
An excerpt from the Timeline Theatre production https://bit.ly/2USGxE1
Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics
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First steps into the text…
Below are some ideas related to key scenes in the play Chimerica. These are intended to inspire exploration and are in no way prescriptive. Detailed practical approaches to the text can be found in the ‘Eduqas
Drama and Theatre A Level Guide’.
Each element – i.e. acting, directing and designing – can be covered simultaneously in the study and practical exploration of scenes from the play. This will enable learners to have prepared ideas for all the elements which will appear in Section A or B of the examination.
Context
The knowledge of the genre, practitioners to apply, as well as social, economic and historical context will apply to all answers in some degree in the examination. If learners relate them closely to the text, their relevance is heightened.
Lucy Kirkwood wrote ‘Plays are an inherently political act because you dramatise the experience of individuals who represent something bigger than yourself.’ Learners might consider how this is evident in her play and how their creative ideas can create a political meaning for a contemporary audience. The play’s historical context is very specific – how can they make this relevant to an audience or introduce new audiences to this important event in history? With the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests how do these events speak to us now?
The conflict between East and West continues to be present in the media. The student protestsand conflicts in Hong Kong 2019 speak about the clash between the principles of democracy championed by the West, and the philosophy of the Communist Chinese regime.
The structure of the play poses challenges for learners, particularly as there are many scenes, changes in location and time frame. How might they overcome these and maintain the pace of the action?
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Acting • Practical exploration of the text will help learners to form their own opinions about the
characters at different stages in the play. It might be a useful exercise to plot a timeline for both
Joe and Zhang Lin who we see in both eras in which the play is set. Students could then work out
‘the in between time’ to create a full characterisation. This backstory will help make the character’s
journey between the two time periods more believable.
• The specific rehearsal techniques used by practitioners and theatre companies the learners
are familiar with can be used to explore acting style, subtext and motivation of the characters. The
style is predominantly naturalistic, however, the use of Frantic Assembly methods in rehearsal
might be appropriate to help to convey the difference in time frame and relationships with the
past.
• Physical and vocal experimentation in the building of a role and relationships will help
learners to develop opinions and personal responses to the performance demands of Chimerica.
• Close text work from Chimerica to prepare monologue or duologue technique and performance
skills will give learners the opportunity to use subject specific vocabulary about vocal and physical
performance skills. For example, in Act One, Scene Eight, learners might work on the interaction
between Zhang Lin and Zhang Wei and how the conflict between them develops and the status of
the relationship they have with one another.
• Live theatre productions, seen as part of the course, will provide helpful examples of acting
skills at work, which can be referred to by learners in Section B. These observations also help
learners to make similar or different creative choices throughout their study of the text.
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Directing
For the purposes of the examination, directing refers to the work done with actors in terms of movement and positioning in the space, in rehearsal and in performance.
• Performance style. This might refer to the original style of performance or one that learners
have applied to the text in their own experimentation with it.
• Movement and positioning in the performance space. As well as the placement of actors
in relation to one another, this might also cover where they enter and exit the stage and the
characters’ relationship with the audience. In Act Two, Scene Three, the two time frames of 1989
and 2012 are used. Learners might consider how this is achieved by the use of movement in the
scenes and how differently the young Zang Lin is to his older self. His interaction and physical
proxemics with Liuli might differ from that with Zhang Wei.
• Interactions between characters through reaction and response in the space. The pacing
and rhythm of the scene might be considered in conveying this relationship, as well as the reaction
to the arrival of new characters and how they change the dynamic of a scene. For example, in Act
Four, Scene Two, learners might consider the difference in status and its impact upon movement
and positioning for Guard and Zhang Lin.
• Rehearsal techniques. These should refer closely to the technique used, its reason and intention,
and the success of its use in achieving the aim. For example, status exercise between the actors
in the above scene.
• Live theatre productions, seen as part of the course, will provide helpful examples of directing
skills at work, which can be referred to by learners in Section B. These observations also help
learners to make similar or different creative choices throughout their study of the text.
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Design
The Design element covers set and props, hair and make-up, costume, lighting and sound. The questions in the examination will clearly state which skill area(s) are required in the response.
• Production Style. Reference to the original production style and context will inform the learners’
ideas. In some cases, this will be a faithful rendition of the style, their own ideas or a different style
completely. In both cases, justification of this concept in terms of their wider knowledge of the play,
themes, relevance and intended impact upon a contemporary audience are required. Learners
might consider if the structure of the play suggests a particular stage shape. One excerpt to look
at is the transitions between scenes four, five and six in Act One. Learners can experiment with
different stage spaces and consider which is the most effective. In Section B, the influence of live
theatre must be referred to in justification of their ideas.
• Hair and Make-up. Ideas might include: the use of colour and make-up and hair techniques to
convey the period, age and status of the character(s). The use of techniques in the creation of
prostheses and elaborate hair pieces and wigs, body make-up and light reacting colours might
be explored. Learners will need to give reasons for the choices of these ideas and connection to
the given / chosen scene(s) is essential. Learners might consider the many different characters
in the play. In keeping with a naturalistic performance style, would these characters be natural
or would learners choose to make the minor characters more stereotyped and use exaggerated
make-up and hairstyles to do this? In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to
in justification of their ideas.
• Costume. Reference to the original performance and other productions might provide a starting
point for costume ideas. The techniques a costume designer might use to create character,
status, age and to convey meaning to an audience should be explored. This might be achieved
by the choice of historical period, use of fabric texture, colour, silhouette of the design and the
intended use by the actor in the given / chosen scene(s). In Chimerica, some characters are only
on stage fleetingly, with many appearing in only one scene. Therefore, learners might consider
that costumes are used as shorthand to indicate certain aspects of a character or occupation, e.g.
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a nurse’s hat. Colour might be used to distinguish the conflicting East vs West theme. Kirkwood
refers to the wearing of Nike trainers by the guard to show this conflict. In Section B, the influence
of live theatre must be referred to in justification of their ideas.
• Set and props. This refers to the study and discussion of various performance spaces and their
suitability for the text and how other productions have been designed for their chosen space.
The production style, location, mood and atmosphere of the given / chosen scene(s) might be
created through the use of levels, positioning of exits and entrances, the proximity of the set
to the audience, and whether set pieces are fixed or able to be moved automatically or by the
actors. Learners will consider the use of large props to dress the scene, and the colour, period
and significance of these in terms of the scene and in conveying a meaning to the audience. The
original production’s set, designed by Es Devlin, consisted of a large cube at the centre of the
stage, onto which various images were projected that helped to indicate the location of the action
or that a passage of time had passed. The other use of the cube was that it provided:
‘…four internal key sets, which can be interchanged within seconds, a trick that leaves the audience
feeling conflicted when it rotates from a scene filled with romance and love to a man being tortured. The
juxtaposition leaves the audience with an unsettled feeling of guilt and uneasy self-reflection after being
engrossed in the emotions of the carefree couple.’
Learners might consider how the play’s large number of scenes, the transitions between each must be done quickly to ensure the pace of the play. Learners might decide that furniture and props are kept to a minimum. In its American premiere, at the Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., this was dealt with by having a:
‘compact structure of moving floors and rooms with paper screens to accommodate the swift scene shifts
between Beijing and New York.’
In the Canadian Stage production, the set consisted of enormous white walls, with two doors, placed on a revolve to quickly change between the different locations. In the Timeline Theatre production in Chicago, the set design consisted of much more detailed naturalistic elements. For a comparison, look at the image of Zhang Lin’s flat from both this and the original production.
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Learners might want to consider the use of props and furniture that are central to the experience of a character, e.g. the significance of the refrigerator for Zhang Lin. In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to in justification of their ideas.
• Lighting design. The techniques used by a lighting designer to convey location, mood, atmosphere
and meaning to an audience might include the use of colour, different types of lighting, positioning
of lights and their intensity, use of effects lights, and length of the lighting cue. The use of technology
through projection and animated visual effects are considered part of the creation of this visual
element. The use of video and projection have been central to all of the professional productions
that have taken place to date, what alternative ways could lighting be used to create locations and
atmosphere? In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to in justification of their
ideas.
• Sound design. The techniques used by a sound designer to convey location, mood and atmosphere,
change in dynamics and rhythm of a scene, and their impact upon an audience might include the
use of different types of sound, placement of speakers, intensity, length of the cue and changes
between sound states, manipulation of sound through software, and the looping of sound in
performance. Learners will need to consider how sound elements could be used to establish
locations, particularly if they have chosen to have a minimalistic stage design. From a dive bar in
Denver to an interrogation room in Beijing (and a myriad of other locations), a sound designer
would need to consider what would be the most effective way to create an audio world that
suggests these places. Kirkwood gives some ideas in her stage directions of how sound can be
used, e.g. ‘The CEO Mytel computer systems …. He’s typing, headphones on. Perhaps we hear the music
he is listening to’. Sound here can be used to establish the character of Peter Rourke. In Section B,
the influence of live theatre must be referred to in justification of their ideas.
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Acknowledgements
Page 1: Lucy Kirkwood; Tim P.Whitby/Stringer/Getty Images.
Page 2: USA and China Flag; daboost / Getty Images
Page 8 and header: Production image; Tristram Kenton http://tristramkenton.com/
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