Three entertainingly modern and human gods played by Callum Coates, Tim Samuels, and Nick Blakeley arrive in China looking for a good person to justify them not bringing forth Armageddon on the world. Shen Te turns out to be that good person.  They present her with a life-changing sum of money for kindly giving them hospitality, and she uses it to buy a tobacco shop.  She is loved for her money by Yang Sun (Aidan Cheng) and for herself by Wang (Leo Wan).    

The songs, new to this version, help the show to bounce along enjoyably enough, but the move from reality to theatricality went so far as to blunt Brecht’s uncompromising socialist message.  A feminist message seemed uneasily tacked onto the script, and the theatrical jokes become a little laboured. 

When Shen Te pretends to be her male cousin in order to do unkind things that are against her nature, the gag of stuffing rubber balls into the top of her tracksuit bottoms palled the second time we saw it, and I heaved a weary sigh when she placed a giant cigarette strategically around her middle and pointed it upwards.  I was not quite clear why I had to watch a character picking his nose and eating the result. Nor did I entirely understand why a few minor characters appeared in animal costumes.  And having characters slide down onto the stage is funny the first time, but eventually becomes an unnecessary barrier between the audience and the play.