With a mission to place more work by East Asian artists on our stages, Chinese Arts Now Festival returns with a line up of digital, dance, theatre, music, comedy and so much more. Debuting last year, CAN 2020 offers a ‘bigger, bolder, and braver celebration of work’ – Nigel Ng’s stand up comedy show Culture Shocked a brilliant addition to this year’s event.
A cutting shrine to an England that never existed, Death of England, examines tormented, terrified masculinity in the wake of a father’s death. Clint Dyer and Roy Williams (Co-Writers) do an excellent job in using this timely confession to muddy the waters of an increasingly polarised world.
Courtesy of Helen Murray.
A star on the rise, Award Winning Comedian Mo Omar has proved himself within the comedy circuit, having taken part in various competitions and events, most notably having performed on Harry Hill’s Clubnite on C4, and the Pleasance Comedy Reserve at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Making an appearance at this year’s Vault Festival, Mo tells us more about how Canadian-Somalian rapper/poet/singer-songwriter K’naan (known here for his World Cup anthem in 2012 Wavin’ Flag) has inspired him and more!
Within the arts, as well as on a larger scale, we’re beginning to witness conversations on representation and race take centre stage – addressing the fact that for far too long, many stories reflective of our day to day lives have been marginalised and even prevented from making it onto our main stages. An advocate of East Asian stories taking centre stage, playwright Daniel York Loh presents Invisible Harmony, a part spoken word/part dance piece/part film dismantling the many myths we’ve built up here in the West about the East brining untold stories to the fore.
Santi & Naz
Under the rumble of the Waterloo train tracks we meet Santi & Naz, two young girls living in India during pre-partition. These best friends are none the wiser to their political situation and with Santi being Sikh and Naz being Muslim, the threat of separation is approaching. When Naz is introduced to her soon to be much older husband, Santi is concerned for her safety and tries to warn her of the dangers of not just this man but of the violence that is happening all around them. In their childhood fashion they create a plan to escape the marriage which ends in disaster.