Oriental City Restaurant, Leeds – 18 May 2017. Reviewed by Dawn Smallwood
On the Wire’s From Shore to Shore originally came from a series of interviews with a wide range of people of Chinese birth and heritage. The stories developed into an inter-generational drama, written jointly by Mary Cooper and M W Sun, which led to a “work in progress” production back in 2015. Leeds’ Oriental City Restaurant could not be more fitting to host intimately this play, under the direction of David K S Tse, with its intimate ambience and thematic decor.
Over a delicious Chinese banquet meal the audience have the opportunity to listen to stories of three individuals who shares the same heritage but their journeys could not be any more different. The play begins when the characters “arrive” and are received by the waiting staff who doubled up as actors.
Cheung Wing (played by Jackie Lam) whose journey goes far back to Imperial China and before Japan invaded China during World War II begins proceedings. He shares his moving account about consuming chicken soup and finding his mother and how food mattered to him for hope and survival and settling in Leeds, he knows what its like “to be starving” and what it “means to be fed”.
Mei Lan (played by Yvonne Wan) recounts her life in Hong Kong where she lived with her grandmother while her parents worked in a takeaway in Leeds. She and her siblings had to help out with the duties in her grandmother’s apartment and when she moved back to Leeds she helped Mum out at the takeaway after school hours. According to Chinese clichés she was expected to do well at school and following adversaries in her life she found solace in the church.
The third character is Yi Di (played by Dandan Liu) who grew up the 1980s at the time when the one child policy was adapted in China. Her father was unhappy not to have a son and Yi Di’s life was impossibly pleasing her father with the expectation of being top of the class at school. With resistance and determination she was able to get a one way ticket to Leeds which she refers to as a “small city surrounded by hills”.
The play does explore themes of family honour, cultures, expectations, endurance and crucially hope combining with the relationship of food. Each story is parallel to the true stories shared by those originating from the motherland to their current home in Yorkshire. The intimate staging with its minimum use of props in the restaurant compliments the performance, tri-lingual dialogues between the performers, and the combined use of music including Chinese percussion effectively link the scenes together.
This is an excellent evening of storytelling which offers one to look into the Chinese community in Leeds and how its members’ life journeys celebrate the spirit of diversity and humanity. From Shore to Shore will now continue its national tour until the 10th June 2017 in York.