The Chinese are turning the clock back half-a-century in London’s East End looking for the original Chinatown down by the docks.
They’ve come to explode myths about opium dens and sinister Chinese gangs in ‘Last Days of Limehouse’, a stage play taking you on a journey to a forgotten world, a once-thriving Chinatown around the old Millwall Docks.
Yellow Earth theatre company’s production starts in 1958 when the former Stepney Borough Council plans to bulldoze the last remnants of Chinatown and the community has to come to terms and embrace the changes the redevelopment will bring, without losing their heritage.
The play explodes the myths to reveal Chinatown as a place that was simply home for generations of Chinese immigrants.
Yellow Earth was set up in 1995 to develop new theatre by British East Asian artists which has staged 18 London productions and has toured Britain.
‘Last Days of Chinatown’, by Jeremy Tiang, music by Ruth Chan, features Jonathan Chan, Sara Houghton, Matthew Leonhart, Amanda Maud and Gabby Wong, performed nightly at 7.30pm in the old Limehouse Town Hall, Commercial Road, near Limehouse DLR.
Special Saturday family matinees at 3pm are on July 19 and 26 and August 2, tickets £6, with interactive performances for children such as meeting Chinatown characters from the past and a Chinese lesson with Mrs Foong.
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