AN inspiring and moving new play about the Chinese communities of West Yorkshire is premiering in Leeds this week.

Mary Cooper’s drama From Shore To Shore will be performed today at the Oriental City Restaurant in Leeds.

The show, written in collaboration with MW Sun, brings together three revealing stories drawn from different generations of people from the British Chinese community.

Directed by David K S Tse, who has worked at the Southbank, RSC and Barbican, the play spans a century of Chinese history, through its stories of love and loss, struggle and survival.

Cheung Wing is escaping from war, Mei Lan has had enough of the potato peeler, and Yi Di wants the impossible – her parents’ approval.

The audience, who will have a meal during the play, will hear a blend of English, Mandarin and Cantonese during the drama.

A spokesman said: “Food and its relationship to love and survival are important themes in the play, and the restaurant setting enhances and underlines these connections.”

Mary said: “The play reveals the long-view of migration – one of toil, endurance and success in the UK. It has been an extraordinary insight into an undiscovered side of Britain’s rich contemporary diversity, reaffirming our common humanity in these divisive times.”

Visit fromshoretoshore.co.uk or call 0113 2137700 for more details and to book tickets.

It is also performed at Yang Sing Restaurant, Manchester (tomorrow and Saturday).