2024 Edinburgh Fringe -
"The Mariana Trench"
Two parallel stories resonate with each other.
Monologues represent the loneliness of humankind.
Theatre Ronin returns to the Edinburgh Fringe, and reinterprets The Mariana Trench to include live music performance. The performance ran for 12 days from 31 July to 11 August, 2024.
The story starts with a frustrated young man. A chance encounter reunites him with a girl he admired during his school years. The young man endeavours to recapture the lost years through this reconnection. The other half of the story revolves around the unmarried maid (Majie) living in Hong Kong in the 60s. She admires the man downstairs who writes letters for others.
Theatre Ronin takes the audience travel between the 1960s and the modern time of Hong Kong, to explore the lives and inner worlds of the two protagonists; and depicts the Hong Kong culture of a particular time.
Edinburgh Fringe 31 Jul-11 Aug 2024
C aquila (studio) venue 21
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
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 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
2024 Brighton Fringe -
Theatre Movie: "Practice of ZEN"
The Story of Swordsman from Mount Shu was written by Li Shoumin. Born in the Republic of China, he wrote about a world of Xuanhuan Wuxia, captivated millions who found themselves in troubled times.
In the 80s, on a roof webbed with fish bone antenna, a kid with his superhero blanket cape was brought to a realm of Wuxia he longed for, by a leaf.
He took in all the tangling of impermanence with resentment, lust with karma, in the martial world. With one light slash he was back, but thousands of years have passed.
Practice of ZEN brings the spirit of Wuxia in contemporary theatrical language. Not a fairytale for grownups, Wuxia is a medium to evoke thinking between the personal and the social.
Pandemic halts shows but not creativity and artistry. Theatre Ronin strives to innovate and capture moments of sincerity. We invite you to be our witness as performers relive the tale.
Edinburgh Fringe Aug 2021
New Zealand Fringe (Wellington) Feb - Mar, 2022
Brighton Fringe May - June, 2022
Manchester Fringe 1 - 31 Jul, 2022
Sydney Fringe 23 Sep - 1 Oct, 2022
Brighton Fringe 3 May - 2 June, 2024
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
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 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
2023 "Landscape in the Mist" (5th run)
Leung Tai-Kwai is a seaman. 15 years ago, he left Shau Ke Wan, a place where he lived and worked. In a foggy March morning, he returns. Amongst the fog, the past parades itself before his eyes. This is a performance of actors, shadow puppets and rod puppets.
Adapted from Shu Hong-sing’s short novel, “The Fog”.
2-3 Dec 2023
Shenzhen Nanshanwenti Center
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
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 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
 Photo: Feng Shunxu |
2023 "Love & Samsara"
Theatre Ronin X Zhen Yun Lin Ge Puppet Theater (Taipei, 2nd run)
The work, selected by the 2022 NTT Emerging Artists Project and co-created by teams from Hong Kong and Taiwan, is derived from “Nie Xiao Qian” of “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio”, illustrating the mysterious identities and relationships of two red-haired women.
Everything was as familiar as a piece of memory in their previous lives. The puppet show was “Nieh Hsiao-chien”. Conversations among people and puppets started here.
29-30 Jul 2023
Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center
 Photo: Daniel Kuo |
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 Photo: Daniel Kuo |
 Photo: Daniel Kuo |
 Photo: Daniel Kuo |
2022 "Love & Samsara"
Theatre Ronin X Zhen Yun Lin Ge Puppet Theater (Taichung, 1st run)
The work, selected by the 2022 NTT Emerging Artists Project and co-created by teams from Hong Kong and Taiwan, is derived from “Nie Xiao Qian” of “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio”, illustrating the mysterious identities and relationships of two red-haired women.
Everything was as familiar as a piece of memory in their previous lives. The puppet show was “Nieh Hsiao-chien”. Conversations among people and puppets started here.
26-27 Nov 2022
National Taichung Theater
 Photo: 黃煚哲 |
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 Photo: 黃煚哲 |
 Photo: 黃煚哲 |
 Photo: 黃煚哲 |
2022 Edinburgh Fringe & Melbourne Fringe -
Theatre Movie: "A Many-Splendoured Thing"
Inspired by the story of Hong Kong renowned novelist Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City, A Many-Splendoured Thing explores love between a man and a woman in a turbulent era through movement with dance. The affectionate sound design brings the performance to a poetic and sentimental level. A Many-Splendoured Thing is directed by renowned theatre director and scenographer Alex Tam, who also serves as the production’s creator and production designer. Alex’s works are composed of different theatrical elements which come together to create poetic imagery.
Edinburgh Fringe - Aug 2022
Melbourne Fringe - Oct 2022
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
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 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
2021, 2022
Theatre Movie: "Practice of ZEN: Director’s Cut"
The Story of Swordsman from Mount Shu was written by Li Shoumin. Born in the Republic of China, he wrote about a world of Xuanhuan Wuxia, captivated millions who found themselves in troubled times.
In the 80s, on a roof webbed with fish bone antenna, a kid with his superhero blanket cape was brought to a realm of Wuxia he longed for, by a leaf.
He took in all the tangling of impermanence with resentment, lust with karma, in the martial world. With one light slash he was back, but thousands of years have passed.
Practice of ZEN brings the spirit of Wuxia in contemporary theatrical language. Not a fairytale for grownups, Wuxia is a medium to evoke thinking between the personal and the social.
Pandemic halts shows but not creativity and artistry. Theatre Ronin strives to innovate and capture moments of sincerity. We invite you to be our witness as performers relive the tale.
Edinburgh Fringe Aug 2021
New Zealand Fringe (Wellington) Feb - Mar, 2022
Brighton Fringe May - June, 2022
Manchester Fringe 1 - 31 Jul, 2022
Sydney Fringe 23 Sep - 1 Oct, 2022
Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
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Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
2021 Theatre Movie: "Hoichi the Earless"
Hoichi lives in a temple and plays the lute. She is also blind and haunted by the dead. When a Samurai invites her to play for his master, the abbot of the temple grows suspicious and summons a monk to follow her. Dark secrets become unveiled. This wonderfully suspenseful re-imagining of Japanese folklore, Kwaidan, fuses traditional Chinese Nanguan live music and songs with innovative storytelling and elegant physicality. The performance is accessible to all audiences, with the adapted text complemented with English and French surtitles.
9-10 Dec
Shenzhen Nanshanwenti Center
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
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 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
2019 Edinburgh Fringe -
"Hoichi the Earless"
Hoichi lives in a temple and plays the lute. She is also blind and haunted by the dead. When a Samurai invites her to play for his master, the abbot of the temple grows suspicious and summons a monk to follow her. Dark secrets become unveiled. This wonderfully suspenseful re-imagining of Japanese folklore, Kwaidan, fuses traditional Chinese Nanguan live music and songs with innovative storytelling and elegant physicality. The performance is accessible to all audiences, with the adapted text complemented with English and French surtitles.
1-10 Aug
C south (main theatre) venue 58
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
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 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
 Photo: Roberto Ricciuti |
2019 The 6th Urban Drama Festival (Shenzhen) – "Wilderness of Soul 2.0"
Adapted from Cao Yu’s Wilderness, Wilderness of Soul 2.0 is a multi-media solo mix of actor’s performance, live music and real-time recording.
24 - 25 May 2019
Shenzhen Nanshanwenti Center
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
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 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
 Photo: Fung Wai Sun |
2018 Avignon Festival Off -
"Hoichi the Earless"
A monk tells the tale of a blind musician being haunted.
Hoichi is a blind lute musician living in a temple.
One night while the abbot was out, a samurai come to invite Hoichi to play for his master.
The abbot is skeptical about Hoichi’s going out every night, so he sends a monk to tail her.
A secret is then unveiled.
Adapted from Kwaidan –Hoichi the Earless by Koizumi Yakumo, this is an aesthetic exploration integrating Nanguan music, storytelling, movement and space. Audience then go deep into their own vulnerability.
20-29 July, 2018
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2017 10th Taipei Fringe -
"Playing with Xi Xi"
Theatre Ronin creates theatre performance from Hong Kong renowed writer Xi Xi’s work again after A Girl Like me, the performance idea is created from four texts of Mourn Over the Breasts and Poetry Collection of Xi Xi, which will be focus on three identities: Female, Patient and Teacher in search for their common values and develop to immersive imagery theatre, and audience will experience Xi Xi's fascinating words at short range.
Awarded “The best use of space” of the 10th Taipei Fringe Festival
26-27 Sep, 2017
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
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2016 "Nature" Kuandu Arts Festival Adapted from Androgyny by Dung Kai Cheung (Re-run)
Contrastive imageries and concepts are taken from Androgyny – body and limbs, male and female, ying and yang, animals and plants, rural and urban – are interwoven to present as a dance music theatre through a dialogue between drama and dance.
21-23 Oct 2016
Experimental Theatre,
Taipei National University of the Arts
 Photo: 許鈺盛 |
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 Photo: 許鈺盛 |
 Photo: 許鈺盛 |
 Photo: 許鈺盛 |
 Photo: 許鈺盛 |
2016 11th International Performing Arts Festival Bahía Teatro –
"Landscape in the Mist "(4th Run)
Fourth-run based on the same-named production in 2014. Adapted from Shu Hong-sing’s short novel, “The Fog”.
15 Aug 2016
Teatro Municipal de Bahía Blanca
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2016 "Silent Scream – Mother Courage & her Children on the Beach" (Taipei)
A re-interpretation of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children, it is a performance created in the narrative space of ‘dumb girl’, the youngest daughter of Mother Courage, where the encounters of Mother Courage and the two brothers in the War is told bilingually – Cantonese and Mandarin – in the form of an environment theatre.
2 - 5 June 2016
Rice & Shine, Taipei
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
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 Photo: Atou Hsu |
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
 Photo: Atou Hsu |
2015 Theatre Works of Outstanding Youth, Beijing: by Chan Koon Chung –
Hong Kong Trilogy Adapted from "Sentimental K " (2nd Run)
A re-work of the three short novels in Chan Koon-chung’s Hong Kong Trilogy through a creative collage of “exotic” sounds, movement, and theatre entwined in texts, music, acoustics, dance and video images etc. The amazing mix endeavours to reflect on one’s self here-and-now by venturing into the past history of one’s own city.
26 - 28 Nov 2015
Beijing Ju Space Theatre
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2015 8th Taipei Fringe Festival –
"A Girl Like Me"
A Girl like me is adapted from Hong Kong renowned writer Xixi’s novel of the same title. In telling the “love story” of a woman mortuary makeup artist, the work examines the position and freedom of women in a male dominant society.
30 Aug 2015
Thinkers' Theatre, Taipei
 Photo: Tong Jian Zhe |
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 Photo: Tong Jian Zhe |
 Photo: Tong Jian Zhe |
 Photo: Tong Jian Zhe |
 Photo: Tong Jian Zhe |
2015 The 2nd Urban Drama Festival (Shenzhen) –
"Wilderness of Soul 2.0"
Adapted from Cao Yu’s Wilderness, Wilderness of Soul 2.0 is a multi-media solo mix of actor’s performance, live music and real-time recording. This performance has awarded “Most Popular Actress” of the 2nd City Festival, Shenzhen, China.
15 - 17 May 2015
Shenzhen
 Photo: Oliver |
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 Photo: Oliver |
 Photo: Oliver |
 Photo: Oliver |
 Photo: Oliver |
2014 The 1st Urban Drama Festival (Shenzhen China) –
"Landscape in the Mist" (3rd Run)
Third-run based on the same-named production in 2012. Adapted from Shu Hong-sing’s short novel, “The Fog”.
23 - 24 May 2014
Longhua Cultural Arts Centre, Shenzhen
 Photo: Cheung Chi Wai |
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 Photo: Cheung Chi Wai |
 Photo: Cheung Chi Wai |
 Photo: Cheung Chi Wai |
2013 Beijing Fringe Festival –
"The Mariana Trench" (3rd Run)
A re-run based on the production in 2011.
It shows the life condition and inner world of a Ma-jie (maid-servant), a profession unique to Hong Kong in the past. It is Theatre Ronin’s endeavor to manifest humanism in art, and a reflection on the emptiness of the contemporary soul.
6-15 Oct 2006
20 - 22 Sept 2013
National Theatre of China, Beijing
 Photo: Paul Chan |
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 Photo: Paul Chan |
 Photo: Paul Chan |
 Photo: Paul Chan |
2012 Beijing Fringe Festival –
"Landscape In The Mist" (Re-run)
A re-run based on the same-named production in 2010, adapted from Shu Hong-sing’s short novel, “The Fog”.
11 - 13 Sept 2012
Trojan House Theatre, Beijing
 Photo: Martin Lai |
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 Photo: Martin Lai |
 Photo: Martin Lai |
 Photo: Martin Lai |