Playwright Chris Ruffle delivers a blow-by-blow account of the 1860 Opium Wars politics in this atmospheric drama, populated by rarefied creatures of the Chinese and British royal courts and their military henchmen. The poor foot soldiers, as usual, pay the price for their power games, vanities and plundering. A small Anglo-French army finds itself before the walls of Beijing. How did it get there? More to the point, how will it get out? A drama strutting its stuff on the grotesque stage of the Imperial era, directed by three-time Fringe First Award-winner.