British East Asian Plays

First collection of full-length plays from British East Asian playwrights

Playwrights: Yang Mai Ooi, Jeremy Tiang, Lucy Chai Lai-Tuen, Amy Ng, Stephen Hoo, Joel Tan and Daniel York Loh.

Selected and Edited: Cheryl Robson, Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe. With an introduction: Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe

A landmark collection of contemporary full-length plays by British East Asian writers. Exploring subjects such as cultural identity, the fragmentation of communities, tradition, invisibility and discrimination, these plays are ideal to perform.

With an introduction by academics Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe which sets the plays into context and explores the hidden history of theatre from BEA theatre-makers.

This is a timely collection, being published within months of the opening of three plays by British East Asian playwrights in the UK, and a growing awareness in the mainstream press that that East Asians in British theatre are under-represented.

As Daniel York Loh writes:

“British East Asians were effectively side-lined in any debate on diversity in theatre where the general establishment view tends towards a binary black/white… which seems to exclude large swathes of the Asian continent.”

As Kumiko Mendl of Yellow Earth theatre writes:

«There is an abundance of talent and experience to be found in the UK, and it's time that the rest of Britain woke up to the diversity of artists and practitioners around them — those that know their Kuan Han-ching as well as their Shakespeare.»

The seven plays in the anthology are:

Bound Feet Blues by Yang Mai Ooi

The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang

Conversations with my Unknown Mother by Lucy Chai Lai-Tuen

Special Occasions by Amy Ng

Jamaica Boy by Stephen Hoo

Tango by Joel Tan

The Fu Manchu Complex by Daniel York Loh

“Ooi has some unsettling examples of how, even today in the West, daintiness in a woman is often celebrated and a `beauty is pain' culture still exists.” --The Stage
“The Last Days of Limehouse is a finely balanced, well-written and superbly acted play that's well worth seeing.” **** — --everything theatre
“…a devilishly ironic spin on Sax Rohmer's classic novel that will leave you in hysterics…wildly satirical and steeped in sexual innuendo… the atmosphere created on stage is alluring.” — --The Upcoming