Wild Swans review, Young Vic

Every now and then something comes along that is so new and surprising you fight for breath. So it is with Wild Swans a history of the rise of communism in China. It has some terrible dialogue and acting and takes a while to draw you in, but then delivers so many punches you leave the Young Vic feeling stunned.

Cultural revelation

Entering the space is in itself exciting. A Chinese market smelling of fermented cabbage and teeming with shoppers, morphs into fields thick with earth which is sown and tilled before us. With communism comes famine, the country smells and colours replaced by white walls against which the outrages of the Red Army burn redder as The Cultural Revolution takes book burning and terror to new heights.

Jung Chang's weighty family memoir has been truncated into ninety minutes of visually seamless drama by Alexandra Wood with a racially authentic cast bringing three generations to life. The moment when the clunky beginnings suddenly crystalise is palpable. There is no relief from tension or emotion. The jarring, simplistic dialogue suddenly makes sense, underscoring the innocence and ignorance of the peasants who believed Mao was their liberation. And when, as the story continues, Jung Chang's framed and humiliated father continues to cling to his ideals -to the point of denying her higher education - there is a profound sense of sadness and loss for those dreams never realised.

In conclusion: Wild Swans takes us into an unknown world. Sacha Ware's direction is spot on and Miriam Buether's staging is a revelation, at one point incorporating paddy fields. There is video work too from China's Wang GongXin.

References
The Young Vic tickets
Michael Billington review in The Guardian