Basketball is the subject from which we explore the evolution of China from 1971 until the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. A foul-mouthed, hyperaggressive basketball coach from the University of San Francisco travels to Beijing during the reign of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. In 1972, President Nixon was welcomed which signaled the opening of China to the world. Right before that moment in history, The Great Leap invents a meeting between the American coach and a Chinese one.
What advice is given? An important one is to get taller players (a tongue in cheek joke). In 1989, these coaches will meet again in a game to take place in China during the protests. The play’s structure goes back and forth in time to accommodate the seemingly never ending clichés. Playwright Lauren Yee combines a sports story, a soap opera and a commentary on the changes in China during that period. We see them manifest themselves in its dutiful servant, Wen Chang, the coach played by BD Wong (M. Butterfly). His performance is interesting considering the character has far too many connect-the-dots contrivances to convey.
For me, the most successful portrayal was the American coach Saul played by Ned Eisenberg (Six Degrees of Separation, Rocky, Golden Boy). As written, the character is far from fully developed (and also a hoary cliché) but the swagger and obnoxiousness of Saul butting against the repressive nature of a Communist culture seemed steeped in realism. The Great Leap was directed by Taibi Magar who has been brilliantly creative recently in such productions such as Ars Nova’s Underground Railroad Game (currently on a national tour). I’m not sure this overwrought piece was salvageable.