Beijing, California - Presented by Asian American Theatre Company

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Company:

Asian American Theatre Company

Stage:

Thick House Theater

Address:

1695 18th St

San Francisco (map)

Play:

Beijing, California

Author:

Paul Weller

Beijing, California a play; by Paul Weller

Presented by Asian American Theatre Company

July 01 to July 17, 2010

Beijing, California is an unflinching study of one nation’s invasion by another–but this time, the victim is not Iraq or Afghanistan; rather, it is America, and the invader is China. As playwright Paul Heller noted in his January 29, 2009 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s 96 Hours, “I hope the audience members will look at their own values and their perceptions of other countries–and how those might change if we were the ones being invaded. What I think we’ll see is that Americans would act like everybody else in the world if they became citizens of a Third World country.”

The play’s futurist scenario takes place in 205...read more0, when Katrina-like disasters and a series of financial meltdowns lead to America’s collapse. The audience follows a series of characters and stories in the Bay Area over a span of 50 years, and discovers what happens to American values in the aftermath of foreign occupation.

Beijing, California contains three interwoven plots, each exploring a different aspect of the Chinese invasion. In one storyline, we follow the presidents of the U.S. and China as their deep, long-term friendship is shattered by China’s ascendance and America’s deterioration. In another storyline, we examine a family amidst America’s economic wreckage. Living on a Third World income, they are forced into a shocking business decision. The final storyline focuses on a Chinese American translator who must navigate a San Francisco segregated into Baghdad-like militarized zones, as she attempts to expose a terrible crime.

Cast

General Niu

Ensemble

Ensemble

Zhang Kai

Ensemble