What unites these very different characters, whether it be a young woman in the fifties emigrating to Canada or the last Ming Emperor confronted with a victorious peasant rebellion, is their total commitment to their own fateful decisions. As the first speaker puts it:
“A certain stage exists when one can still withdraw, This stage is long since past, the forward movement now Is much more urgent and one feels oneself somehow The plaything of events, subjected to some law One scarcely understands at all….”
Share the final thoughts of Chong Chen before he hangs himself in the Palace Gardens, or those of Amy Johnson as she runs out of petrol on her last solo flight in 1941. Other personages that make their appearance on the stage are ancient Greek mathematicians, Sixties hippies, Alan Turing (the pioneer computer scientist), a contemporary rent boy and many many more...
What unites these very different characters, whether it be a young woman in the fifties emigrating to Canada or the last Ming Emperor confronted with a victorious peasant rebellion, is their total commitment to their own fateful decisions. As the first speaker puts it: