The Drink And Dream Teahouse

A tender, intensely moving love story set in modern China, where old and new cultures collide and long-hidden memories are brought to the fore.

When the state-run Space Rocket Factory closes down in the decaying, rural town of Shaoyang it brings the workers and their families face to face with the realities of the new China. Party Secretary Li protests against the closure with one terrible action, plunging the whole community into stark relief.

The characters we meet are unforgettable. From Old Zhu and his wife, who remember life before the Communist Liberation, to Madam Fan, the local diva, who stands on her concrete balcony at dawn to rouse the world with Beijing Opera, to her beautiful young daughter, Peach. We follow their lives as they struggle to come to terms with the modern world.

In post-Tiananmen China, where pop music and western attitudes to love mingle in a heady sub-culture, people's only freedom is to make money. The unexpected return of Da Shan, Old Zhu's entrepreneur son, from the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, brings everything his father has struggled for into question. No one can ignore the fact that Da Shan has returned a rich man; and no one can forget his past: a history of social and personal revolution.

Touching, funny and utterly memorable, 'The Drink And Dream Teahouse' maps the contours of human drama in a work which seduces with laughter and drama as it devastates with tragedy and sorrow.