My overall impression
From the moment you walk in the theatre and see the simple but elegantly evocative, highly functional set you know you’re in good hands. Ann Starbuck delivers an endearing, honest and heartbreaking performance as she tells the tale of her year as a college student in China culminating in the Tiananmen Square Uprising.
This is a beautifully structured piece. Tales from the Tiananmen Square Uprising are the bones. Lighter tales of her year leading up to it provide both comic relief and the building blocks of her skills and growing understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture that allows her to be of great help to CNN as a student translator during the Uprising.
Her characters are sharp and well-defined while tinged with the genuine affection she has for them. This is one not to be missed.
