Scenes From a Repatriation

A daring, shape-shifting play about the controversy around a statue in the British Museum, questioning who can claim cultural artefacts - and why. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2025.

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, and several are available in a collection, Joel Tan Plays Volume 1, published by Checkpoint Theatre.

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.

His play Love in the Time of the Ancients was a finalist for the 2019 Papatango Prize, and No Particular Order was shortlisted for Theatre 503's 2018 Playwriting Award.

Product details

• Authors: Joel Tan, Tan Joel
• Publisher: Hern, Nick Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.05.2025
• EAN: 9781839044243
• ISBN: 978-1-83904-424-3
• No. of pages: 128
• Series: NHB Modern Plays
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; DRAMA / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Modern and contemporary plays (c 1900 onwards), Plays, Playscripts, Plays, playscripts, drama