Royal Court Theatre today announces the casting for Joel Tan’s Scenes from a Repatriation directed by emma + pj.
The cast includes Kaja Chan, Aidan Cheng, Jon Chew, Fiona Hampton, Robin Khor Yong Kuan and Sky Yang.
Scenes from a Repatriation 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.
The production runs from Friday 25 April 2025, until Saturday 24 May 2025 with press night on 30 April 2025.
‘All of human history? It’s basically people taking things from each other’
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.
Joel Tan’s shape-shifting play unfolds the statue’s journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up centuries of ghosts.
Directed by experimental theatre-makers emma + pj (Ghosts of the Near Future, Barbican), Scenes from a Repatriation questions who can claim cultural artefacts – and why.
Scenes from a Repatriation is a Royal Court Theatre commission.
