Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon Wan, Tina Malone.

The richness of Liverpool’s cultural heritage is forever blessed because of every single person that has made their way to Liverpool. No matter how far, no matter the reason, like New York, it is a city built upon the history of strangers coming from far afield and giving a little piece of their home. That history inspires, it moulds an area and its people and yet occasionally the lives that have been touched by meeting somebody new is destroyed by ill thinking by Government agreements.

The Curious Disappearance of Mr. Foo deals with the repatriation of a section of the community that had made Liverpool its home. The forced deportation of the Chinese who had made a section of Liverpool a colourful and striking place to breathe in the air, the dangers that were involved of being involved with somebody from a different culture to your own and the prejudice that could be seen in a former loving family, all were dealt with decorum and hushed tones. The moment in which Cathleen Delaney is confronted by her father caused many a lump in the throat to be harshly swallowed.

Both Simon Wan, as the dedicated and exotic Mr. Foo, and the fabulous Tina Malone as the woman who captured his heart and then broke it beyond measure through no fault of his own made the night inside the Unity Theatre a true pleasure. The idea of duologue is one that doesn’t really get the type of admiration that it deserves. The interchanging of words, the heady mixture of world’s colliding and the despair, coupled with admiration struck home with a poignancy of events going on in the world every day. Love normally conquers all, in this case, love just left itself feeling unwanted and undeserved.

Etiquette is a wonderful thing and yet at times you do have to wonder why there are those who still insist on keeping on their phones when at the theatre. For that alone both Ms. Malone and Mr Wan should be congratulated for persevering with this fine and informative play despite the very obvious intrusion that the constant buzz of a phone can bring. Other actors have their way of dealing with this type of interruption, sometimes the best way is just to carry on and leave it to the audience to remind others after of what it does to an actor’s concentration.

The Curious Disappearance of Mr. Foo continues in the very fine form showed by plays such as Gold Mountain that the Chinese community in Liverpool, with all its very fabulous wealth of art and history, of knowledge and understanding, has at times been taken from a mostly tolerant people. The crime of repatriation on the basis of an understanding between countries is never a pretty one, it never really solves an issue and only makes for the gut to crawl and sink further from hope than you could ever believe. For those inside the Unity Theatre to see this superb piece of work being given a one off performance, it can only be hoped that the story of Cathleen Delaney and the charismatic Mr. Foo stays firmly entrenched in the minds and hopefully will be seen by a wider audience.

Ian D. Hall.