Scenes from a Repatriation - Paperback

by Joel Tan (Author)

A bold, imaginative piece of theatre...opens up a complex dialogue on history, identity, and cultural ownership with intelligence and heart. --Reviews Hub

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.

Author Biography

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. 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.