Scenes from a Repatriation - by Joel Tan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Provocative and fascinating.
--Broadway World

Ingenious and thrilling...This is innovative theatre, shining with intelligence, which brings richness to our cultural tussle with the problem of ancient statues and their rightful place in the world.
--Guardian

Playful, enjoyable and ambitious.
--Time Out

Bold and profound...Tan has written a play that feels at once sweeping in scope and completely nuanced. Told with biting satire and extraordinary personal depth, it establishes him as one of the most daring playwrights working today.
--London Theatre

Touching, shocking and funny...will challenge your perspectives on a whole range of issues.
--Everything Theatre

Ambitious, unusual and challenging...a play that shifts and swerves, its multiple scenes switching location, its perspectives and arguments moving like water...Tan brings considerable subtlety and passion to his examination of the questions of repatriation.
--WhatsOnStage

The panorama of the story is vast and scorchingly profound...Tan delves fascinatingly into the murky meaning of ownership.
--The Stage

A powerful, thought-provoking, and educational theatrical experience...an impressive and, at times, uncomfortable investigation into the complex world of cultural artefacts and their repatriation.
--West End Best Friend

About the Author

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.