Gold Mountain – Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Writers: David Yip & Kevin Wong with Les Deux Mondes

Director: Daniel Meilleur

Reviewer: David Noble

The Public Reviews Rating:

Visually incredible and emotionally complex, Gold Mountain is a production from the always innovative Les Deux Mondes theatre company. Telling the story of a Chinese man, Yee Lui, who goes from a small provincial village to living in Liverpool, it is a funny but painfully stark study on the arbitrary nature of life, and the difficulties endured by those who migrated to this country in the 20th century.

Now this may sound like a well ploughed concept, yet Gold Mountain is full of inventive quirks. Primarily, the story is told through the eyes of Yee Lui and his son, who was born in Liverpool, and this provides enormous insight into the strained relationship between Yee Lui and the rest of his family. Also, the fact that he seemingly influenced the manifesto of the Communist regime in China makes for compelling viewing.

The use of media throughout the play was absolutely outstanding. Three overlapping, moving screens were manipulated expertly to show video, which gave the play a sense of chronology and some necessary structure. Full credit must go to Video Designer Yves Dubé for providing these spell binding special effects.

In addition to the graphics, it was the complicated central character, underplayed superbly by David Yip (Temple of Doom, A View To A Kill), that really held the play together and made it so mesmerising. This is what impressed me so much. The ambiguity and confliction in Yee Lui provided a sense of gritty realism that could so easily have been absent. Eugene Salleh, as his son David, was the perfect foil for this performance, even if the role was somewhat more simplistic.

Gold Mountain was not without flaw, the idea that a peasant man in Liverpool could impact the philosophy of Mao Zedong was always a bit strained, but it was a truly excellent piece of theatre. Only an hour long, it was brilliantly in depth and intense, and the ending contained a fantastically futile twist. Gold Mountain was an excellent infusion of drama and artistic vision, and you must see it.