Tan Scenes from a Repatriation

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78850-874-2
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 128 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

'All of human history? It's basically people taking things from each other.' A thousand-year-old statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin 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. Joel Tan's daring, shape-shifting play unfolds the statue's journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up age-old ghosts and asking who can claim cultural artefacts - and why? Scenes from a Repatriation was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by experimental theatre-makers emma + pj.

Joel Tan is a Singaporean playwright based between London and Singapore. In Singapore, his plays have been produced by leading theatre companies like Checkpoint Theatre, Wild Rice, and Pangdemonium, and several are available in a collection, Joel Tan Plays Volume 1, published by Checkpoint Theatre. Recent work in the UK includes: Scenes from a Repatriation (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2025); No Particular Order (Theatre 503, London, 2022); When The Daffodils (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2021); Living Newspaper with the Royal Court Theatre; Overheard, and Augmented Chinatown with Chinese Arts Now. His play Love in the Time of the Ancients was a finalist for the 2019 Papatango Prize, and No Particular Order was shortlisted for Theatre 503's 2018 Playwriting Award.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tan, Joel

Leseproben

Prologue

MAN

WOMAN CHILD

WOMAN. I love you.

CHILD. They’re not coming.

WOMAN. I love you.

CHILD. The door’s stuck.

WOMAN. I love you.

MAN

PART ONE: THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

1.

WITCH ONE

WITCH ONE. I love you too.

Oh, I…

()

()

()

( )

Hello?

()

()

Fuck.

()

That’s better.

Isn’t it?

–

–

–

It’s alright.

It’s time to

You can –

()

Ooph, something heavy here.

You can go, you can move on.

()

WITCH TWO WITCH ONE

WITCH TWO Babe, y’alright?

Drink some water.

WITCH ONE. Thanks.

WITCH TWO. The others are all done, getting some drinks.

You coming?

( )

Babe you know we can’t…

()

The smoke’s gonna…

WITCH ONE. I can’t stop looking at this one.

These stains.

WITCH TWO. Uh huh.

WITCH ONE. You ever think?

What’s in a stain?

WITCH TWO. Oxidation, I s’pose. Exposure.

WITCH ONE. No, man.

Where one thing meets another.

Imprints itself.

WITCH TWO. Yeah.

You sure you okay?

WITCH ONE. What do you reckon this spot here is?

This dark bit.

WITCH TWO. Blood?

WITCH ONE. I dunno. Blood, yeah.

Worse, maybe?

Soot.

–

Soot, yeah.

Fire.

–

Fire.

()

Horrible to think.

WITCH TWO. Yeah.

WITCH ONE. The heat of it.

The –

hopeless…

WITCH TWO. Cold in here.

WITCH ONE. You want to think it’s easy

y’know?

Surrendering to death.

Wanna think it’s a letting go.

But what about fire?

How do you surrender to fire?

No one surrenders to fire.

You writhe in it.

You scream, you feel it

cook you.

WITCH TWO. Fuck.

WITCH ONE. There’s no surrender with fire.

Is there?

Horrible to think someone…

Could do that to someone else.

Anyone.

–

When the fuck are we ever gonna stop

doing this shit to one another?

WITCH TWO. Let’s go, baby.

WITCH ONE. I wanna pray for this one.

One last one. Please?

WITCH TWO. Course.

GUARD ONE

GUARD ONE. Excuse me.

WITCH TWO. Fuck.

GUARD ONE. Sorry you can’t do that.

We’ve been watching you.

WITCH TWO. We’re done, we’re going.

Come on.

WITCH ONE

GUARD ONE. We closed an eye with the dancing and the flowers

in that other room

But this smoke stuff, that’s

WITCH TWO. Just incense

GUARD ONE. You try’na set off the fire alarm?

WITCH TWO. It’s not going to set off the

GUARD ONE. Yeah, no, it’ll –

Carbon monoxide detector.

Create a whole mess.

Ruin the art.

Put it out, please, and you’ve gotta –

WITCH ONE. Quiet.

GUARD ONE.

GUARD ONE. You’re disturbing the other –

WITCH ONE. ’S no one here.

–

GUARD ONE. Listen I’ve been watching you lot.

You can’t just –

I don’t want to have to remove you.

GUARD ONE WITCH ONE

WITCH TWO. Could you please not touch her.

Could you –

WITCH TWO GUARD ONE WITCH ONE

GUARD ONE. Fuck’s sake, put that –

WITCH TWO. ()

()

We’re

We’re…

We are Islington Witches for Radical Change

And we’re here to release the spirits in these objects

These / objects imprisoned here,

GUARD ONE. Guys… Guys…

WITCH TWO. against their will by the British Museum

Which is an institution of colonial violence

/ A repository of colonial violence

An archive of brutality!

GUARD ONE. () Guys I’m gonna need some help in Hall Six

Guys, come on.

I’m going to have to escort you both out of the premises.

GUARD ONE

WITCH TWO. These objects are prisoners!

The spirits within them are prisoners!

We are only here to say prayers

We are not touching the objects

We are peacefully demonstrating

Peacefully intervening…

()

We cast these spells and prayers

Words of release and worship

GUARD ONE

GUARD ONE. What the fuck?

GUARD TWO

GUARD TWO. What the FUCK?

GUARD ONE. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

PUT THAT OUT NOW

WITCH ONE

WITCH ONE. FIRE.

FIRE.

DO YOU SEE

DO YOU HEAR

CAN YOU HEAR

CAN’T YOU HEAR US?

CAN’T YOU

DON’T YOU SEE US

DON’T YOU HEAR

SMELL US

CHOKING

IN HERE

FAT BOILING

UNDER OUR SKIN

WITCH ONE.

FIRE.

FIRE.

GUARDS.

GUARDS WITCHES

WITCH ONE WITCH TWO

WITCH TWO. Let her go!

Don’t touch her!

We are peacefully demonstrating

We are calling for the return of

of

HUMAN REMAINS

FUCK’S SAKE

HUMAN REMAINS

STOLEN –

RELIGIOUS OBJECTS

PEOPLE’S

GODS

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

We are not resisting!

Fuck the police!

GUARD ONE. We’re not police.

WITCH TWO. FUCK THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

WITCHES

GUARDS

–

–

–

GUARD ONE. Finally.

Y’alright?

GUARD TWO. () Jesus.

GUARD ONE. Every week some new freakshow, huh?

() Yup they’ve been removed.

Come on.

GUARD TWO. Gives me chills, this place.

GUARD ONE. Hey?

GUARD TWO. Proper chills.

GUARD ONE. Oi.

GUARD TWO. Proper fucking chills.

GUARD TWO GHOSTS YOUNG SOLDIER