Chimerica Review | The price of freedom

35 years ago, a young man forced tanks to stop in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and became the symbol of freedom-loving Chinese youth. A play is inspired by the famous cliché.

The taste of freedom can be bitter… especially when it is used as the slogan of a soft drink brand. This slogan is one of the (very many) images that parade in Chimericathe new production by Duceppe.

It is a work of fiction anchored in the news of the last three decades, signed by the British author Lucy Kirkwood and directed by Charles Dauphinais. A political thriller about the changing balance of power between East and West, and an uneven spectacle that makes us think about the state of the world… If not captivating us.

We all remember the image of the “Tank Man” standing alone in front of a column of armored military vehicles the day after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. This 19-year-old Chinese student, never found later, would become instantly the icon of Western democracy and resistance to the communist regime.

This photograph is the basis of Chimerica, whose title is a portmanteau that expresses the complex relations between the United States and China, against the backdrop of the Tiananmen Square massacre. While tanks cross Beijing and soldiers pound on his hotel door, Joe Schofield (Alexandre Goyette), a young American photojournalist, takes this famous photo from the window of his hotel room that will launch his career.

Flash forward. We find Joe in New York, while the country is in the middle of the race for the 2012 presidential election, the one which will give a second term to Barack Obama. A cryptic message left in a Chinese newspaper suggests that the Tank Man is alive and living in the United States… Joe will go in search of the unknown hero he photographed 23 years earlier.

Matter for discussion

For nearly three hours (intermission included), Chimerica constantly takes us on a journey between continents and eras. The play asks important questions about the emergence of China on the world stage and, conversely, the decline of the American empire. It challenges the search for truth at any cost, questions the true nature of heroism. And what it costs to fight for your ideals. It also questions sensationalism in media coverage. In short, there is room for discussion.

However, despite all the good will of Alexandre Goyette, you have to be patient to follow the story of Joe, a character who stands still dramatically and does not evolve one iota. Because his quest full of twists and turns quickly becomes relentless. And spare no one. At his side, Marie-Hélène Thibault plays a cynical journalist and Marie-Laurence Moreau, a woman disillusioned by her profession and by the market economy. The cast includes a few performers of Chinese origin, speaking Mandarin, including Derek Kwan, who plays the character of Zhang Lin. French surtitles are projected above the stage.

The staging is very busy. We are transported from one place to another, between 1989 and 2012, to the point of dizzying us a little.

We are also bombarded with images and changes of scenery. We feel crushed both by the weight of the two superpowers and by the mechanics of this production which is running out of oil.

Chimerica

By Lucy Kirkwood. Directed by Charles Dauphinais. Translation by Maryse Warda. With Alexandre Goyette, Marie-Laurence Moreau, Marie-Hélène Thibault and nine other performers.

Duceppe’sUntil February 17

6/10