The Great Leap

Don't Miss Lauren Yee's Insightful Geopolitical Dramedy 

Sports, geo-politics and two radically different cultures collide in up and coming San Franciscan playwright Lauren Yee's The Great Leap. Receiving much critical acclaim during its 2018 Off-Broadway run, the insightful drama wings its way to Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in the fall of 2019, bringing along thought-provoking questions about national identity, and the generational divide amidst Yee's ebullient humour and expertly crafted dialogue. 

A play about basketball on the surface, The Great Leap also reflect's the great American past time in its structure, rhythm, language and movement of characters. Shifting between 1971 and 1989, it tells the story of two coaches and two countries. Back in '71, American coach Saul mentored aspiring coach Wen Chang in Chang's homecity of Beijing, and returns 18 years later, after the great Chinese Cultural Revolution. There to play a friendly game against his old mentee, it quickly emerges there are larger forces at play, especially on the eve of the Tiananmen Square massacre...