For those of us alive in 1989, when an unnamed man defiantly stood in front of a row of tanks after the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, we remember the indelible news footage and images of him swinging plastic shopping bags in a daring, impromptu dance between the desire for democracy and the crushing firepower of the Chinese state. Who was he? What propelled his bravery? What were the consequences of his actions, and what became of him – and, for that matter, the soldier who failed to run him down?

Mark Leonard Winter, Brent Hill, Tony Cogin and Rebecca Massey in Sydney Theatre Company’s Chimerica. Photo © Brett Boardman

We don’t know, and may never know, but British playwright Lucy Kirkwood has a red hot go at presenting us in her play Chimerica with a story of who Tank Man might have been, staged with precision by director Kip Williams, with scenes that segue seamlessly between past and present, employing a chorus that alternately dances and flees for its life.

The title of the play is an amalgam of China and America, and its coinage is attributed to Scottish historian...