Like Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica, Mia Chung’s You for Me for You juxtaposes two polarised worlds: in this case, North Korea and the United States. But while the play itself is a fascinating, freewheeling affair, it was Richard Twyman’s production that really knocked me out. It is the most epic theatrical venture I’ve seen in a tiny space.
Chung’s play is the story of two starving North Korean sisters who attempt to escape across the Chinese border. One, Minhee, remains trapped in a well, where her subconscious allows her to re-create the bureaucratic nightmare of her native land as she tries to find her lost son. The other sister, Junhee, makes it to America, where she encounters an incomprehensible language and a country of limitless, but largely unfulfilled, dreams.
You could argue that the play reinforces stock ideas, but what is startling is the form, which suggests the two sisters are experiencing variations on the labyrinthine dreams of Alice in Wonderland.
All this is manifest in Jon Bausor’s brilliant design, comprising a large hexagonal box, which allows characters to appear and disappear through metallic flaps. Tal Rosner’s video design, which at one point shows trees sprouting giant ears, and Anna Watson’s lighting add to the sense of disorientation. Katie Leung’s Junhee, bewildered by American consumerism, and Wendy Kweh’s Minhee, obdurately loyal to a punitive regime, are well contrasted, and there is good support from Paapa Essiedu (the next RSC Hamlet) as the former’s Alabama boyfriend. But the boldest and most hilarious performance comes from Daisy Haggard, who, as a series of American women, speaks a species of gobbledegook that only gradually deviates into sense. It all adds up to a richly strange evening.
- At the Royal Court, London, until 9 January 2016. Box office: 020-7565 5000.
