Cast: David Yip, Eugene Salleh.

What is never in doubt about Liverpool is how the city has survived and thrived as a hotch-potch of different cultures and ideals. From the Irish who disembarked at Liverpool docks during the potato famine and who arrived with not the slightest idea of what was going to happen to their lives or culture, to the Chinese who had to cross oceans and the thoughts of internal tyranny to arrive in Liverpool to face prejudice and suspicion at every corner.

Local leading light in the Liverpool Chinese community, David Yip, has teamed up with writer Kevin Wong to create a story that has been in development for several years but has come across as fresh and exciting. With its subtle use of shadows, light and projected images from long forgotten times, the two actors on stage give exquisite performances that left the audience astounded.

Alongside David on stage was the superb Eugene Salleh, his acting in such a small enclosed space was worthy of the man playing his father. His concentration on the narrative was a pleasure to see and it was without doubt, applauded by every person there.

Gold Mountain is one of the most astonish pieces of theatre that many present would have been privilege to witness, evocative, informative and heartbreaking at the same time. If nothing else the audience would have left the Unity Theatre would have left the building with a greater insight in to the plight and lives of the Chinese community during the dark days of World War 2 and the after effects felt by the repatriation orders.

David Yip and Kevin Wong must be congratulated for bringing this story to the wider attention of theatre goers and it should be one of those plays that transfers easily round the country. Even areas of the U.K. that doesn’t have a large Chinese community would still benefit from this experience.

Ian D. Hall