A Double Bill of intercultural theatre as part of  London- Beijing Connections

Magical Chairs by Mary Mazzilli

Magical Chairs is an allegorical experimental piece: two trapped Magicians trying to escape a room filled with chairs, two young people grappling with growing up and social attitudes to  youth.  Through experimenting with storytelling  the audience is brought to look at  universal truths  foreshadowing the consequences of our preconceptions and choices on the youth of today.

There’s Only One Wayne Lee by Roy Williams

There’s Only One Wayne Lee is based on There’s Only One Wayne Matthews, a story of friendship between two Black British teens. Jonathan Man originally directed this as a work-in-progress performance at Contact Theatre, workshopping the script with Roy Williams, where they both saw the power of this piece in showing the experience of growing up in modern Britain.

The production is re-imagined this as a unique coming of age tale, where Wayne, a bookish British Chinese teen unexpectedly befriends Carl, the British African Caribbean school football captain.  Set in 1970s Britain, where racism and intolerance was brazen and rife, this is an unseen exploration of what it means to try to fit in contemporary Britain, and the hitherto unexplored parallels and divergences between the different diasporas.

About London- Beijing Connections
This show belongs to the project London- Beijing Connections, which is an exploration of intercultural theatre, which refers to a type of theatre that enables cultural exchanges between communities, in this case ethnic communities, in terms of artists involved, public engagement and audiences.

By casting British actors of Chinese and African descent, Lumenis aim to allude to the global clashes between East and West, old world and new world, head and heart, in a way to deeply appeal and engage with the diverse audiences of London.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by China-UK Connections Through Cultures, British Council.

Wednesday, 31 August
Post Show Q&A with Aleks Sierz
Aleks Sierz will talk to Director Jonathan Man, Playwrights Roy Williams and Mary Mazzilli and Producer David Ahlbrecht about intercultural theatre and new writing.