Scenes from a Repatriation

'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 Scenes from a Repatriation unfolds the statue's journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up centuries of ghosts. It is premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 2025, directed by experimental theatre-makers emma + pj.