Typhoon 5

Yellow Earth is delighted to present its fifth international playreading festival. Typhoon is a unique and vital event in British theatre diversity, promoting the best of contemporary East Asian drama and showcasing quality British talent: East Asian writers, actors and directors. T5 sees the exciting world premieres of our first Yellow Voices initiative, during which Yellow Earth mentored three writers over one year, in partnership with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Soho Theatre and the Young Vic. T5 also includes work from Japan, Singapore and the USA, and one of these six new plays will tour next year.

Previous Typhoon writers have come from eight East Asian countries and two diasporas, and they welcome submissions for T6 in 2010, particularly from unrepresented East Asian countries and diasporas. Their Literary Associate, Philippe Cherbonnier, has done a sterling job coordinating the festival. The growing confidence of this sector, buoyed by the rise of China and the success of the Beijing Olympics, has set the theme for this year’s seminar.

Many British East Asian (BEA) artists have benefited from their Professional Development schemes, and several new companies have been set up as a result. This is the first time that the Typhoon festival has featured majority BEA directors.


Yellow Earth Theatre
Yellow Earth was founded by five BEA performers in 1995. The company produces work that explores universal themes from an East Asian perspective, celebrating cultural diversity through an integration of theatre skills from the East and the West. The range of work covers new writing, devising and the reinterpretation of classics, with an emphasis on exploring the links between contemporary experience and multicultural heritage. The company also runs educational workshops, residencies and community projects as part of its outreach programme.

Monday 3^rd - Saturday 8^th November 2008

Soho Theatre 21 Dean St London W1

Tickets: £5 (£3 concessions)

Box Office: 020 7478 0100 or www.sohotheatre.com

Typhoon Festival Offer

Book for all six readings and get 50% off. Call the box office and quote ‘Typhoon Festival Offer’.

Please note that all tickets must be booked together.

Programmes:

Boom by Jean Tay (Singapore)

Director: Philippe Cherbonnier
Tuesday 4^th November, 7pm
The living and the dead jostle for space as the economy booms and development runs riot. An old woman who refuses to move battles her estate agent son, while a psychic civil servant has problems persuading a stubborn corpse to relocate.

A Dream of Red Pavilions adapted by Jeremy Tiang (Yellow Voices, UK)
Director: Jonathan Man
Monday 3^rd November, 7pm

Based upon Cao Xueqin's classic 18^th century Chinese novel about the rise and fall of the aristocratic Jia family, this is the tragic love story of two beings from the spirit world born to experience the fullness of life.

wAve by Sung Rno (USA)
Director: Kwong Loke
Thursday 6^th November, 7pm
Loosely inspired by the Medea myth, this dysfunctional love story veers from madcap farce to tragedy as one isolated Korean immigrant collides with the illusions of the American dream.

Pathological Happiness by Kazuko Hohki (Yellow Voices, UK)
Director: Adjjima Na Patalung
Friday 7^th November, 7pm
Alone in her lab, a Japanese pathologist Maiko encounters a talking cell which declares its love for her. A naked man, cloned from the same cell, steps out from the incubator and an unusual love triangle begins.

Keeping up with the Wongs by Andy Cheung (Yellow Voices, UK)

Director: David TSE Ka-Shing
Saturday 8^th November, 7pmIn Walthamstow, the British Wongs hatch a desperate plan to outdo their new neighbours from mainland China, but will success prove to be their ultimate downfall? A contemporary social satire of one-upmanship where nobody wins.

Visit Yellow Earth Theatre website for more

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