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Written by Kumiko Mendl, Artistic Director New Earth Theatre (2011–2024). First published September 2022.

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Written by Kumiko Mendl, Artistic Director New Earth Theatre (2011–2024). First published September 2022.

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For over 25 years, New Earth Theatre has created work informed by the artists and communities of East and South East Asian heritage living and working in the UK. The company develops and presents plays and productions that ask key questions of identity, of the world we live in and our place in that world.

Working with BESEA actors, writers, directors and designers, New Earth Theatre also nurtures new talent through the Academy acting, writing, off-stage and producing courses and the Professional Writers Programme. Alongside this, the company brings artists to communities, museums and schools.

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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History of New Earth Theatre

In 1995, five British East and South East Asian actors came together to form what was then known as Yellow Earth Theatre. The founders – Kwong Loke, Kumiko Mendl, Veronica Needa, David KS Tse and Tom Wu – were frustrated by the lack of opportunities facing actors of East and South East Asian heritage and shared a common interest in exploring their own cultural heritage. Eager to experiment and search for a hybrid form that could embrace both Western and Eastern forms of storytelling, they set out to create work for themselves and others like themselves.

Early work focused on exploring a physical language using the skills and knowledge of the founder members that included Wushu (a form of martial arts), Beijing Opera, Noh and Kabuki (traditional forms of Japanese theatre), as well as their Western drama school training.

The very first production, New Territories (1996), was written and directed by David KS Tse. Starring a young Benedict Wong, Claudia Malkovich and Tom Wu, the play was based on the writer’s own experience of coming to the UK from Hong Kong as a young boy and attending a boarding school in the West Midlands.

David KS Tse ran the company as Artistic Director from 1995-2009, followed by Philippe Cherbonnier and director Jonathan Man from 2009-2011. Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, productions featured work that was written by David or the company’s Literary Associate, Philippe. This has included 1997: Behind the Chinese Takeaway (1997), The Whisper of A Leaf Falling (1998), Rashomon (2001), Play to Win (2000) and 58 (2004). 58 chronicled the shocking story of 58 Chinese migrants, young men and women, who were found dead in the back of a lorry in Dover on 18 June 2000. In the play we meet Meng, who flees persecution, blue-haired rebel Lan, who seeks freedom, and Chen, who moves to mend a broken heart. Sadly, this story has tragically continued to repeat itself over the years.

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In 2011, Kumiko Mendl became the new Artistic Director. As the company’s previous education and outreach associate, Kumiko brought her interest and passion for engagement, participation and devised work to the fore.

This began with Dim Sum Nights (2011), a series of short pieces of theatre served up with tea and dim sum in Chinese restaurants. Using the Beijing Opera convention of a table and two chairs as set, writers were commissioned to create 10-minute plays in response to the setting (often the wedding banquet suite). Audiences voted for their favourite piece, leading to the most popular forming an evening of short plays that toured across theatres and restaurants in the UK in 2012.

Surfacing forgotten histories: The Last Days of Limehouse and Forgotten 遗忘

This was followed by an ambitious site-specific production of The Last Days of Limehouse (2014), written by Jeremy Tiang. Set in the Old Town Hall in Limehouse and with an accompanying audio walk, it examined the origins of the first Chinatown in London that grew up around the docks from the 18th century through to the early 20th century. Taking oral history interviews from members of that original community, the play brought to life a now-forgotten history. In doing so, it exploded the stereotypes and lurid myths of opium dens and sinister Chinese gangs, to reveal a place that was, for generations of people, simply home.

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Photographs of The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2014

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Photographs of The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2014

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Photographs of The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2014

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Photographs of The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2014

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Another forgotten history brought to the stage was the story of the 140,000 Chinese men (the Chinese Labour Corps) who came to Europe from China to work behind the front lines for the British and French armies in World War One. Forgotten 遗忘 by Daniel York Loh was produced and staged during the centenary of the Armistice in 2018. The Chinese title translates as ‘forgotten’, ‘left behind’, ‘erased’. Recently, the play has been introduced to schools through OCR’s recommended and expanded text lists for A Level English Literature students.

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Photographs from Forgotten 遗忘 by Daniel York Loh (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2018

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Photographs from Forgotten 遗忘 by Daniel York Loh (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2018

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Photographs from Forgotten 遗忘 by Daniel York Loh (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2018

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Photographs from Forgotten 遗忘 by Daniel York Loh (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2018

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Adaptations: Tamburlaine

In 2017 the company produced a reimagined adaptation of Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe (first staged around 1587), adapted by Ng Choon Ping. Featuring a majority female BESEA cast with the lead role of Tamburlaine played by Lourdes Faberes, the play was given an exciting new lens through which to view toxic masculinity and subvert the Western and Asian characters as originally penned by a young 16th-century English playwright.

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Photographs from Tamburlaine, adapted by Ng Choon Ping (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2017

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Identity and belonging

In 2018 the company co-produced the critically acclaimed Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok, an adaptation by In-Sook Chappell. It is drawn from the author and restaurateur Helen Tse’s family memoir, Sweet Mandarin. Tracing the lives of three generations of women from China to Middleton via Hong Kong, the play weaves time and space into a thrilling exploration of identity and belonging.

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These themes have underpinned much of the company’s recent work. Tsunagu/Connect (2022) brought audiences into an immersive exhibition-performance focusing on the little-known British Japanese community. Based on interviews conducted with 30 Japanese women who have settled in the UK since 1945, the production set out to capture their stories: ‘No one knows how many Japanese women are living in the UK. No-one knows why they came. No one knows how long they have been here. No-one knows their stories. So we asked them’.

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Illustrations by Natsko Seki for Tsunagu/Connect by New Earth Theatre

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Illustrations by Natsko Seki for Tsunagu/Connect by New Earth Theatre

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Home-grown BESEA stories: The Apology

A Professional Writers Programme was established in 2017. Borne out of a desire to increase the visibility and representation of home-grown BESEA stories on British stages, the programme supports four BESEA writers to develop a full-length play over a two year period. Of the first cohort of writers, three will have been commissioned and produced by New Earth Theatre by 2023.

Among these new works is The Apology by Kyo Choi, in performance from 15 September to 8 October 2022 at the Arcola Theatre. A landmark for British Korean theatre and based on true accounts by survivors, The Apology reveals the shocking story of the ‘comfort women’ of World War Two. It centres the history of the estimated 200,000 women in the East Asian region who were tricked, kidnapped or coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army, and the subsequent political cover-up. Three women’s lives intertwine as they seek to uncover the past and speak truth to power. Their quest amplifies the hushed-up reality of sexual violence, as #MeToo did, and other urgent issues that envelop us now: governments covering up atrocities, women's bodily autonomy, revisionism, misogyny and the legacy of colonialism. Finally, in the writer’s words, ‘The Apology is a universal story of defiance by those who would otherwise be forgotten, marginalised or silenced for a larger agenda’.

This female-led production joins a body of work conceived and produced by Kumiko that has strong lead roles for female BESEA artists. Together, these productions counteract the history of stereotyped and severely limited ESEA female roles on offer in British theatre.

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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Photographs from The Apology by Kyo Choi (produced by New Earth Theatre), 2022

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Raising visibility and creating community

For New Earth Theatre, the importance of bringing ESEA stories to the wider public and pushing for higher visibility through larger-scale productions cannot be underestimated. The sense of invisibility has dogged the community for many years. Due to the nature of ESEA migration, particularly for those from the Chinese diaspora who came in large numbers to Britain during the 50’s and 60’s via the catering trade, the geographical spread of the community stretches across the UK. Often young ESEA children are the only ones in their class, or even a whole school, contributing to a sense of isolation and all too often experiencing bullying and racism.¹

In 2010 the company began a free intensive week-long summer school to encourage more young BESEA people to consider the theatre industry as an option. This has grown over the years, and reflects the importance and the industry’s slowly growing recognition that the stories we tell on stage must reflect contemporary British society. Arguably, this recognition has accelerated in recent years with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020. The academy now partners with 10 organisations to run training courses all over the country, which are open to BESEA performers and theatre-makers as well as writers and those interested in off-stage work and production.

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Building community in this way helps to strengthen the sector. Whatever the form the work takes – from new plays penned by a single writer to adaptations of classics, from devised community-led work to an immersive, digital performance/exhibition piece – it is the space for community that it is being built. Imbued by the company’s ethos and values, community is the cornerstone of New Earth’s work.

New Earth Theatre’s future, post-pandemic

So much has changed in less than a decade. The impacts of Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, war in Europe, the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis have all influenced the work that is made, who makes it and how it is made.

As a small, agile company, New Earth is constantly looking at ways to innovate and to continue to not just survive, but thrive. Most significantly, the digital realm has opened up new avenues of work, broadening audience reach and ways of making, although the ‘liveness’ of theatre will always remain a key element. Despite the challenging climate, New Earth Theatre will continue to strive for better representation for BESEA work and artists, confident that the stories need to be told and the way they are told will resonate with people no matter where they are from, or what they do.

New Earth Theatre’s published plays include:

King Lear, adapted by David Tse Ka-Shing (downloadable script)

Running the Silk Road by Paul Sirett (Oberon)

The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang in British East Asian Plays (Aurora Metro & Supernova Books)

Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok by In-Sook Chappell (Oberon)

Under the Umbrella by Amy Ng (Nick Hern)Forgotten by Daniel York Loh (Oberon)

Fix by Julie Tsang (Aurora Metro)

Miss Julie by Amy Ng (Nick Hern)

The Apology by Kyo Choi (Methuen)

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* We use the term BESEA to mean anyone from the following countries and their diasporas who live and work in Britain.

These countries make up an area that is known as East and South East Asia. They include
Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, North Korea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Everyone self-identifies in their own way and that identity is not necessarily fixed. We currently use the term BESEA so that we can have collective power when making our case for the many artists from communities that continue to be severely underrepresented in our theatre industry.

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