A True Story

Shanghai Dolls is a gripping new play, based on a true story set in 20th Century China, by Amy Ng, playing at the Kiln Theatre. Directed by Katie Posner and with a creative team including designer Jean Chan and composer Nicola T. Chang, the production brings to life the untold story of two women whose paths would shape history in profoundly different ways.

What Is The Story?

In a rapidly changing China, two struggling actresses form an unbreakable bond while auditioning for Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House in 1930s Shanghai. As political turmoil intensifies, their lives take dramatically different paths; one rises to become China's first female director, while the other ascends to the top of the Communist Party as the architect of the Cultural Revolution. As friendship gives way to ideology, Shanghai Dolls examines the cost of loyalty and the inescapable truth that the personal is always political.