Kaja Chan, Aidan Cheng, Jon Chew, Fiona Hampton, Robin Khor Yong Kuan and Sky Yang make up the cast of Scenes from a Repatriation, running at Royal Court Theatre in April.
A 1000-year-old statue of the Boddhisattva Guan Yin lives in The British Museum. When it emerges that the statue was stolen from its original home, the museum attempts to deflect both the public response and controversial repatriation claims from the Chinese government.
As statesmen scheme and grease their palms, beneath the statue witches dance, a cleaner prays, and spirits weep. Guan Yin’s gaze falls over the broken shards of human life from empires old and new.
Written by Joel Tan, Scenes from a Repatriation is described as a shape-shifting play that unfolds the statue’s journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up centuries of ghosts.
It is designed by TK Hay, with lighting design by Alex Fernandes, sound design by Patch Middleton and the movement director is Ken Nakajima. The casting director is Jatinder Chera, and the assistant designer is Yijing Chen.
The production is directed by emma + pj, the collaboration between theatre makers Emma Clark and PJ Stanley.
Performances run from Friday, April 25 2025, until Saturday, May 24, 2025. Details here; https://royalcourttheatre.com/
Top picture: Kaja Chan, Aidan Cheng, Jon Chew, Fiona Hampton, Robin Khor Yong Kuan, Sky Yang (credit James Greenhalgh) (supplied)