Chimerica (NHB Modern Plays)

Lucy Kirkwood

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781780012889
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A powerful, provocative play about international relations and the shifting balance of power between East and West.

Tiananmen Square, 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe - a young American photojournalist - captures a piece of history.

New York, 2012. Joe is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labour and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film. Who was he? What happened to him? And could he still be alive?

A gripping political examination and an engaging personal drama, Chimerica examines the changing fortunes of two countries whose futures will shape the whole world.

Originally premiered to critical acclaim at the Almeida Theatre, London, in a co-production with award-winning touring company Headlong, this updated version of the play was published alongside Chimerica 's transfer to London's West End.

'ambitious, sprawling, morally fascinating, as gripping as a good novel' The Times

'a tremendously bold piece of writing... topical without being gimmicky and well-informed without being showily so... a landmark production' Evening Standard

'a gripping, multilayered and meticulously researched thriller... like an expansive HBO mini-series expertly compacted into an evening at the theatre... Kirkwood's sharp, incisive dialogue is splendid' Time Out

ACT ONE

Scene One

An image of a man with two shopping bags in a white shirt, standing in front of a line of tanks. It is important he is Chinese... but we cannot see this from the photograph. It is important it was taken by an American... but we cannot know this simply by looking at it. It is a photograph of heroism. It is a photograph of protest. It is a photograph of one country by another country.

Scene Two

5th June, 1989. A hotel room overlooking Tiananmen Square. Split scene, JOE SCHOFIELD (nineteen) is speaking on the landline phone with his editor, FRANK (forty-five), in the newsroom of a New York newspaper. JOE has his camera slung round his neck, watching the square below. It’s around ten a.m. for JOE, eleven p.m. for FRANK.

FRANK. We’re trying to get you on the ten fifteen out of Beijing tomorrow morning, but the airport’s in chaos, the BBC might have a spot on their charter, did you meet Kate Adie yet?

JOE. No, I don’t think so.

FRANK. She’s a doll. Underneath, you sure you’re not hurt?

JOE. I told you, I’m fine.

FRANK. I should never’ve sent you overseas, not so soon, not on your own, a situation like this, you need experience –

JOE. It was a student protest, didn’t know it was gonna turn into a massacre, / did we?

FRANK. You’re not even old enough to drink, chrissakes, what was I – don’t go out again, okay? You stay there, in the hotel, just focus on getting those films back to us.

JOE. You gonna give me a front page, Frank?

FRANK. Yes, Joey, I think three hundred Chinese people being gunned down by their own government warrants a little more than a hundred words on page six, don’t you?

JOE. It was more than that. I was down there, Frank, it was – three hundred, is that what they’re saying? I don’t know, but it was a lot more than –

JOE freezes, looking out of the window.

Oh fuck.

JOE moves to the window, crouches down, watching the man who has walked out.

FRANK. Joe?

JOE. Oh fuck, what is he doing? What is he – Jesus, get out of the road, you stupid –

JOE realises the man’s actions are entirely intentional.

Oh my God.

FRANK. What’s going on there? Joey, talk to me, what are you –

JOE. This guy. He has these... bags, like grocery bags and he... he just walked out in front of the tanks, and he’s just standing there like – I mean, they could just run him right over. But he won’t move, he won’t move, he’s, he’s incredible, I wish you could...

JOE stares, transfixed, breathless. Unconsciously copies the Tank Man’s movements, as if he were holding two shopping bags.

FRANK. Okay, Joe, don’t worry, we’re going to get you / out of –

JOE. Will you just shut up a second?

Frank, this guy, he’s my age.

I think I’m about to watch him get shot.

Silence. JOE picks up his camera. Starts taking pictures.

FRANK. Well, did they do it yet?

JOE. No. Not yet. I’m gonna put down the phone for a second.

JOE lays the receiver down. Takes pictures. Suddenly, banging on the door.

(Sotto.) Shit.

He gently hangs up the phone.

FRANK. Joe? What’s happening –

Lights down on FRANK. JOE quickly winds his camera film to the end. Takes the film out, grabs more used films from his bag, empties dirty underwear out of a plastic bag, puts the films in, ties a tight knot. The phone rings. JOE makes a silent gesture at it, runs off, to the bathroom. The phone stops ringing. The banging ceases. JOE returns without the films. Listening. He goes to the door, puts his ear to it. Puts a new film in his camera, takes shot after shot of the carpet. Shaking with adrenaline. Gathers his camera bag, film. Pulls on his jacket. The phone rings, he dives for it, whispers:

JOE. Frank?

Lights up on FRANK.

FRANK. Jesus, Joey, what are you trying to do to me!

JOE. There were fucking guards outside the door!

FRANK. Well, are they gone? Are you okay?

JOE. Yeah! My heart’s fucking, like, you know?

FRANK. Yeah, what about your films?

JOE. I put them in the toilet cistern –

FRANK. Good boy. You get a good frame of that guy?

JOE. I don’t know, I was just spraying and praying, listen, Frank, I’ll call you back –

FRANK. You will not call me back, you stay on this line, / you hear me!

JOE. Frank, I lost him, I / have to –

FRANK. What d’you mean, you lost him?

JOE. I mean I can’t see him any more, I have to go down there, see if I can –

The door smashes open. A swarm of CHINESE SOLDIERS enter. JOE drops the phone, stands, puts his hands up, backs away.

FRANK. Joe? JOEY!

Lights down on FRANK as the SOLDIERS shout at JOE in Mandarin. JOE remains frozen with his hands up as one SOLDIER steadily aims at him while another grabs his camera, takes the film out, throws the camera against the wall. Punches JOE in the stomach, JOE sinks to the floor. Chaos, violence, shouts in Chinese dialects as we travel forward twenty-three years to...

Scene Three

A plane. JOE is forty-two years old. MEL STANWYCK (forty-five) to his right, TESSA KENDRICK (English) to his left, reading a magazine, knocking back a cocktail. JOE and MEL have beers.

MEL. It’s a seven-star hotel, Joe. Why wouldn’t you want to stay in a seven-star hotel?

JOE. I told you –

MEL. The website says it has an ‘auspicious garden’. An auspicious garden, Joe.

JOE. Yeah but I haven’t seen Zhang Lin / for –

MEL. Sure, right, your friend.

An AIR HOSTESS enters. TESS speaks quietly to her, she takes TESS’s empty glass and goes.

JOE. First time I went back to Beijing, Mel, I was so green you wouldn’t believe it, Zhang Lin asks to meet me, offers to teach me Mandarin, he bought me a suit – I ever tell you that, he bought me a fucking Armani suit! We only have two days, I just want to hang out with him a li...