The Poway Center for the Performing Arts is known more as a concert venue than a site for theatre, but its season includes several theatrical events. Last year, Zero Hour, Jim Brochu’s insightful one-man play about the life of Broadway musical comedy star Zero Mostel, came and went all too quickly, and later this season Eva Marie Saint and Jeffrey Hayden will appear for one night only in On the Divide, based on the works of Willa Cather. Rarely is there more than one performance of any event.

Burning in China, which is making its West Coast premiere as PCPA’s current offering, differs from this norm by playing three performances across two weekends. The final performance was Sunday, March 1.

The play recounts the experiences that author Gary Moore had while teaching at a university in Shanghai in 1989, during the height of the democracy movement. Moore was teaching a class in advanced English language to a group of teachers, and he was frustrated by the students’ seeming lack of engagement and his sense that his students were discouraged about their prospects as teachers in a rapidly-evolving Chinese society. To encourage them, Mr. Moore decided to write and stage a performance that featured students rapping in both Mandarin and English about the opportunities presented by democracy. The students became quite energized by the experience, and when the democracy demonstrations began several months later, at least one of the students became a leader in the Shanghai version of those demonstrations.

Mr. Moore proves to be an excellent eyewitness. He provides vivid descriptions of events, and enough details about people and locales to make things interesting. The piece could use some editing and sharpening, however. The story takes too long to get going, and details that ought to foreshadow later plot points end up being ignored. The first act’s ending feels too much like the end of the play (there is a second act, despite what is implied in the printed program) and a second act conversation about a Chinese man’s curiosity about Western sexual practices has, shall we say, a limp climax. The show could also use additional humor, especially in the first act, as the second act can get fairly intense.

Jeff LeBeau portrays Mr. Moore onstage. Mr. LeBeau has more credits in film and television than in theatre, and he sometimes seems to be playing to the camera, rather than the audience. Nevertheless, he proved to be a charming performer, one with whom it was easy to spend time.

The minimal production (a desk, a couple of chairs, and a film screen) was directed by Caleb Deschanel. A five-time Oscar® nominee for cinematography, Mr. Deschanel kept the action (and Mr. LeBeau’s energy level) flowing, but he definitely did not shoot the videos that punctuated the narrative.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the democracy movement, and soon Western news media will remind us of the grim clash between students and the military in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Burning in China reminds us that the ideal of democracy is worth the struggle for it, a struggle that goes on even in the present day.