SHANGRI-LA Makes World Premiere at Finborough Theatre Tonight

Part of the Finborough Theatre's summer season of new writing, the world premiere of a first play by an exciting new playwright, Shangri-La by Amy Ng opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season tonight, 12 July 2016 (Press Nights: Thursday, 14 July and Friday, 15 July 2016 at 7.30pm).

What happens when the only thing you have to sell is your culture? When the only way to free yourself is to betray your roots?

In the first play to put contemporary Tibet on the UK stage, based on her personal experiences working for a Chinese sustainable travel company, new play playwright Amy Ng lays bare the tensions, contradictions and private pain inherent in cultural tourism -- on the frontline of globalisation.

Shangri-La is not a myth. Shangri-La is a place. The Himalayan foothills of China's Yunnan Province were officially renamed 'Shangri-La' in a successful bid for the tourist dollar. Bunny, a young woman of the indigenous Naxi tribe, witnessed her family's livelihood destroyed by mass tourism. She dreams of escape - as a globetrotting photographer. Nelson, her liberal Chinese boss, dreams of a new kind of tourism - sustainable, respectful, enabling genuine cultural exchange. Karma, their Tibetan colleague, wants riches, respect and redemption from a guilty family secret. And their western clients yearn for escape, for the touch of something authentic. These desires collide head on inShangri-La.

Shangri-La is Amy Ng's first full-length play. It was developed at the Tricycle Theatre and received a staged reading at Vibrant 2014 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights. It is directed by acclaimed director Charlotte Westenra.

Playwright Amy Ng trained on the Royal Court Theatre's Critical Mass Programme and the British East Asian Writers' group supported by The Young ViC. Short plays include Special Occasions (St. James Theatre and Arcola Theatre) and A Little Night Music (Bread and Roses Theatre and The Space). Staged readings include Acceptance as part of Vibrant 2015 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights. Prelude to a Feast won the Oxford University Film Foundation competition for Best Short Screenplay. Amy is also a historian with a research interest in multinational empires, imperial decline, and nationality conflict, and the author of Nationalism and Political Liberty (Oxford University Press)

Director Charlotte Westenra recently co-created the scenario for Christopher Wheeldon's Strapless for The Royal Ballet. She studied Drama at the University of Manchester and trained at Augusto Boal's Centre of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro. Charlotte was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse 2004-05 and directed Kiss of the Spider Woman and Lower Ninthfor the theatre, as well as working as Associate Director to Michael Grandage for Frost/Nixon and to Jamie Lloyd for Piaf (Donmar Warehouse and Vaudeville Theatre). She went on to work at theatres including the Tricycle Theatre, Trafalgar Studios and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and is currently an Associate Artist at the Gate Theatre where her productions include Sunset Baby . Theatre elsewhere includes The Return of the Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre), Venice Preserv'd (Spectators' Guild), The 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala (The Old Vic), Blair's Children (Cockpit Theatre), Titanic (Scenes from the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, 1912) (Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast) and Brazil and Casablanca (Secret Cinema). Charlotte has been recognized for numerous awards, including a 2006 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre as Associate Director to Nicolas Kent for BloodySunday - Scenes From The Savile Inquiry . She received a nomination for a 2006 WhatsOnStage Theatregoers' Choice Award for Gladiator Games; the same play was nominated for a 2007 Olivier Aw ard for outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for its run at Stratford East.

Producer Matthew Schmolle is Executive Director and lead producer for The Working Party Theatre Company, creating professional quality theatre in community settings. They are currently producing a series of commissions in Lewisham and launching BROADCAST - Radio Drama for Punks, Pirates and Teddy Boys www.theworkingpartyuk.org. He has produced for The Big House, Blackboard Theatre at The Vaults, The Spectators Guild and Emergency Exit Arts, and worked for Iris Theatre, Immediate Theatre and Old Vic New Voices.

The cast is:

Andrew Koji | Karma
Trained at The Actors Temple.
Theatre includes Hidden (Royal Court Theatre), The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre), Fu Manchu Complex (Southwark Playhouse), The Forgotten of The Forgotten (Radar Festival), In The Bar Of A Tokyo Hotel (Charing Cross Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire and Richard III (The Actors Temple).
Film includes The Fast and Furious 6, Hall of Mirrors, Luck, Mercutio's Dreaming: The Killing of a Chinese Actor, Beautiful Friend, 20th Century Boys: Chapter Two - The Last Hope and FB: Fighting Beat.
Television includes Call The Midwife, The Wrong Mans, Casualty, Acquitted and Scrutiny.

Julia Sandiford | Bunny
Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Sam, The Highest Jumper Of Them All.
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes The Woman In The Moon (Rose Theatre, Bankside), Stroke Of Luck (Park Theatre), Limehouse Nights (Kandinsky Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Southwark Playhouse), Crazy Love (Paines Plough), La Dispute (Theatre du Preau and Chipping Norton Theatre), Swallow Song (Oxford Playhouse), The Exonerated (Riverside Studios), The Real Thing (Theatre Royal Bath and National Tour), Richard II (Ludlow Festival) and Myth, Propaganda and Disaster In Nazi Germany and Contemporary USA (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond).
Television includes Emmerdale, Tripped, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Silent Witness.

Kevin Shen | Nelson
Theatre includes Yellow Face (National Theatre and Park Theatre), Chimerica (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Caught (Arcola Theatre).
Film includes Unlocked and The Rezort.
Television includes You, Me and The Apocalypse, Tyrant, Hoff The Record, 24: Live Another Day, Obsession: Dark Desires and Bite Of The Living Dead.
Radio includes Fear of Flying.

Rosie Thomson | Sylvia / Hope
Previous productions at the Finborough Theatre include Fen and Don Juan Comes Back From The War .
Theatre includes The Kitchen, The Cherry Orchard and The Hothouse (National Theatre), Yes Prime Minister (Gielgud Theatre), I Caught Crabs In Walberswick (Eastern Angles, Edinburgh Festival and Bush Theatre), Starlore for Beginners and Other Plays, The Apathists Weekly Review and The Most Humane Way To Kill A Lobster (Theatre503), Stepping Out (Salisbury Playhouse), Sleeve Notes and Darknet (Southwark Playhouse), Stinkfoot and The Manual Oracle (The Yard Theatre) and Henna Night (Chelsea Theatre).
Film includes Enigma and Women and Children.
Television includes Doctors , The Bill, EastEnders, Dream Team, A Touch Of Frost, Judge John Deed, Family Affairs,
Second Sight and Love Succs (50 Ways To Kill Your Lover).

IF YOU GO:

SHANGRI-LA
Tuesday, 12 July - Saturday, 6 August 2016?
PRESS NIGHTS: THURSDAY, 14 JULY 2016 AT 7.30PM and FRIDAY, 15 JULY 2016 AT 7.30PM
Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm. Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm. Saturday matinees at 3.00pm(from 23 July 2016).

Performance Length: Approximately 70 minutes with no interval.

At Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 | Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Prices until 24 July 2016 - Tickets £16, £14 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £14 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £16 all seats. Previews (12 and 13 July) £12 all seats.
£10 tickets for Under 30's for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only.
£12 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on Saturday, 16 July 2016when booked online only.
Prices from 26 July 2016 - Tickets £18, £16 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £16 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.

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