Fancy going out to the theatre and have a meal - from Shore to Shore saves you some legwork...

It’s not uncommon to combine a trip to the theatre with a meal out but usually that means visiting two separate venues but one production, opening in Leeds tonight, has taken the legwork out of the equation by staging a play in a restaurant. From Shore to Shore looks at the positive impact immigrants from China have had on the UK. It takes place at the Oriental City restaurant, where guests will be treated to starters before watching the play, then enjoying a meal afterwards.

Ellen Wang, operations manager at the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds, pictured above, was one of those whose story was used as research for the production. She moved to the UK aged just 15, having been born and brought up in Beijing. Now aged 35, Ellen, whose birthname was Xu, is a product of China’s ‘one child’ policy, which formally ended toward the end of 2016.

You might think there is nothing unusual about Ellen’s circumstances. A woman in her mid-30s, engaged to be married to a Yorkshireman, she is successful in her own right but had she remained in China, she would have the sobriquet of ‘sheng nu’, which translates as ‘left-over women’. It’s a largely derogatory term to describe women over the age of 27 who have not yet married and had children and it’s a consequence of the aforementioned birth control policy.

Ellen explained: “It means left over, it’s a derogatory term. If you reach the age of 27 and you are not married, then you are ‘left-over woman’.

“In some ways the single child policy has advantages… a lot of girls are successful in what they do and they have certain expectations for their partners. I have been engaged for five years now, I’m actually liking taking my time, I’m proud to be a left-over woman...”

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The play is set to tour nine restaurants in nine UK cities