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Review: Shanghai Dolls (Kiln Theatre)

Review by Dan Sinclair


⭐️⭐️


‘Shanghai, 1935. A rehearsal room.’ Lan Ping, a local actress, is preparing to audition for the role of Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll's House when she is interrupted by a 14-year-old Li Lin, clutching a child's doll to her chest. The city is being torn apart, we find ourselves in the middle of the Chinese Civil War, and Li Lin, the supposed daughter of a communist martyr, seeks refuge in the theatre - or the headquarters of the League of Left-Wing Dramatists. This historical play goes on to track these two women's friendship and eventual downfall alongside the rise of the Chinese Communist Revolution. 


Produced by the Kiln Theatre and Paines Plough, Amy Ng’s new play seeks to discover the lost stories behind Jiang Qing - stage name Lan Ping - and Sun Weishi - pseudonym Li Lin. The play takes on two fascinating figures: Jiang Qing, actress, wife to Chairman Mao Zedong and bulldog of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and Sun Weishi, a radical thinker, adopted daughter of Mao’s number two - Zhou Enlai, and the first female theatre director in China. We know they met, we know they were friends, and we know that it culminated in the brutal torture and execution of Sun in a black site prison under the eyes of Jiang Qiang. Across 80 minutes, Amy Ng seeks to find this story, one that has been buried under the history books of the victors.



Amy Ng’s text showcases a minimalist approach to dialogue, notably for the character of Jiang Qing, it has a strange rhythm to it. Blunt, economical, but heavily expositional. For long stretches of the play, we are bombarded with names, events and political speechifying. At an electric 80 minutes, it leaves little room for us to get under the bonnet of the relationship between these two women. It is noticeable that both performers seem to struggle getting around this text. With direction from Katie Posner, it feels like there is a constant barrier between us and these two titanic women. Is this a creative choice? A flick through the script would say most definitely, but it’s one that led to a performance that often felt somewhat forced.


It’s hard to put your finger on, but it feels like something hasn’t quite clicked yet. It is a production that still seems to be going through the motions of a play rather than settling in. As Jiang Qing, Gabby Wong bears the brunt of the clunky script, somewhat getting there towards the end as Jiang Qing becomes a vicious extension of her husband, but in her earlier life, it feels very children's TV presenter-y. As her opposite, Sun Weishi, Millicent Wong (star of one of my all-time favourite plays and productions, Athena at The Yard!) has a slightly easier time of it as the 14 year old Li Lin, but again falls foul of having to spend the majority of her lines explaining history and grand political movements.



Following the great famine of 1942-43, historians say that between 1 and 3 million civilians died. In response, Sun Weishi visited the Daqing Oil fields in 1964 and lived with the workers. There, she hears harrowing stories of cannibalism and atrocities enacted by the army. Upon returning to Bejing, she attempts to produce a play, The Sun Rises, something perhaps close to our modern understanding of verbatim theatre, about the experiences of the women working on these fields. It is shut down by Jiang Qing in a brief scene. Alongside the references to the Moscow Art Theatre, it reminds me of all the alternate fascinating plays that could exist from this story. But instead, Shanghai Dolls feels like the most obvious and flat response.


The design is a fortunate highlight of the show. Jean Chan’s set features three simple walls that are spun around to create a myriad of rooms, but they also open the space up enough to showcase the intricate video design of Akhila Krishnan. Dates, real footage and newspaper articles are blasted across the space, complemented by the outstanding sound design of Nicola T Chang. Chang’s composition adds a beautiful sense of depth to every location; the busy streets of Shanghai feel just around the corner, monumental political movements can be heard through walls and the use of some very skillful foley sound design elevates an otherwise lacking text.



To Moscow, to Moscow! The production is guilty of a classic trap, assuming an audience understands the clever theatrical references that the team do. References to Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Ibsen’s A Doll's House (a lot of this) and the history of Stanislavski are not just fun asides, but rather key plot points. Amy Ng stresses that history is written by the victors, and from all historical accounts we know surprisingly very little about these two titanic women. Sadly, after this performance, I came away knowing more about the exploits and political movements of Chairman Mao, Zhao Enlai (Papa Zhao) and the meaning behind Ibsen’s A Doll's House than I do of Jiang and Sun. 


Shanghai Dolls is playing at the Kiln Theatre until May 10th. 



Photos by Marc Brenner

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