With the Edinburgh Festivals fast approaching, three theatre producers experienced in programming and touring work in China reflect on their experiences of the city, and what it offers UK companies looking to share work internationally. Their insights highlight the continued importance of the Edinburgh Festivals for international programmers, and the opportunities in adapting work for new audiences in China.
Li Huayi, international programmer for Aranya Theater Festival and Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Li Huayi, Director of International Programming for Aranya Theater Festival and special liaison for international relations of Wuzhen Theatre Festival, attended Edinburgh for the first time three years ago as part of British Council China’s International Performing Arts Delegation. Developed in response to the impacts of the pandemic on international connections between the UK and China, the delegation offered an intensive programme of seeing shows, networking, and meetings– supporting Chinese producers to encounter UK work and begin building relationships with UK companies.
For Huayi, the programme was a comprehensive overview of UK theatre, and an opportunity to consider how UK theatre at the Festivals could resonate with audiences in Aranya and Wuzhen. It can also be an opportunity for UK organisations to understand different performance contexts around the world.
“Edinburgh is expansive and diverse, and it’s impossible to see everything. Meeting people in-person is crucial. You know almost in the first few instants if you’re connecting. There is a spark. And even if something doesn’t happen right away, it can develop over time” said Li Huayi.
One of these connections was with 1927, a Margate-based company known for mixing performance with live animation. Although Huayi, and Aranya’s creative team were already aware of the company’s work, meeting the producer in person helped build momentum for further dialogue. 1927’s Please Right Back was subsequently included in the 2026 edition of Aranya.
The delegates programme is organised to coincide with other visiting delegations from around the world, giving Huayi and other producers access to peers from nearby countries. This opens up the possibility of touring work from the UK across different festivals in the region such as South Korea and Japan. For Huayi, openness and foresight can be essential qualities to make the most of a long-distance tour.
Trusting producers and programmers is key. Teams in China are well placed to navigate their networks and identify further opportunities for artists to share their work. Infrastructure such as high-speed rail can offer easy and quick travel between cities; however companies should be careful of exclusivity clauses in contracts which may restrict sharing work within a radius of different venues or festivals. Remounting productions can also be costly when technical specifications differ. To address this, projects can prioritise local production including building sets and sourcing materials in China rather than depending on expensive and unpredictable shipping from the UK.
Coco Hsu, Director of Artistic Planning and Programming for Shanghai Modern Drama Valley
Coco Hsu, Co-director of Modern Drama Valley, Shanghai, similarly attended the Edinburgh Festivals as part of the same delegation in 2023. Although the festival has been programming works from the UK since 2016, Modern Drama Valley has been moving towards ‘co-productions’ as a model for their international programme.
Recently this has included a Chinese-language adaptation of the piece An Interrogation, a psychological crime drama by British writer and director Jamie Armitage, which Coco first encountered in Edinburgh. Whilst licensing the copyright through an international agency was relatively smooth, the central challenge lay in localisation, particularly how to adapt the script and performance without replicating the original production.
“Such ‘co-productions’ require the ability to translate culture and reconstruct context, which is definitely a challenge and a period of growth for both me and the theatre festival”, said Coco Hsu.
The adaptation by theatre company 2332 Studio sought to focus on the nuance of the space between lines, allowing the actors’ convictions to carry the unspoken psychological tensions between the characters into a new performing context. The positive reception for An Interrogation suggests a growing interest in localised adaptations of similar international works, and a desire among audiences for co-created work.
For UK companies, this represents a significant opportunity to develop new adaptations of work in collaboration with Chinese partners. This involves rethinking assumptions around authorship, performance and what it means to ‘tour’ a work.
“Ultimately, the most successful collaborations occur when UK artists no longer simply “present a UK performance”, but rather “work with their partners to create an unrepeatable cultural memory”, said Coco Hsu.
