Norman Yeung

Isabelle is a young professor of film theory. She creates an internet discussion board for her class as a learning tool and encourages them to speak freely. A mysterious student posts questionably offensive comments and videos, testing Isabelle’s open-mindedness. Amid backlash from her students and urging from her wife, Isabelle must decide on whether to take action against the online offender. She becomes obsessed with this game of cat-and-mouse where she and her tormentor blur the lines between predator and prey. The attacks become increasingly vicious and bizarre, disrupting Isabelle’s personal and professional life, and dismantling her ideal of liberalism.

An uncanny encounter between two people in despair becomes a chance for mutual understanding, or for xenophobic hate. THE ZOONOTIC STORY is a response to abuse against Asians during the pandemic, shared through magical realism and the magic of language, with glimmers of compassion.

After school one day in 1899, Genevieve is confronted by her new student Deng in their rural schoolhouse. The city boy feels humiliated by something the teacher did in class, but she insists she was being helpful. Their tête-à-tête reveals that the Chinese-Canadian boy and Québecoise woman share struggles although they are from worlds apart.

On the cusp of a new century, the characters look ahead to a new world where marginalised women and immigrants forge a stronger voice to shape a new Canada.

Eunice is a shy loner at her high school but comes to life on her video blog, charismatically sharing her personal life with anyone on the internet. But she only gets a few views a day, if at all. When the popular student Jordan tries to coax Eunice into sexual acts during an online chat, she fights back by exposing his sexual harassment on her vlog. She is elated to see her viewership grow to hundreds, then thousands, but the comments are damning. The backlash against her shaming Jordan becomes vicious and hateful, sinking Eunice deeper into depression. Now she is standing on a chair with a leather-belt-noose hanging above her, and an audience before her. This is where the story begins.

Eunice needs the audience to help her decide her fate. Her communication with the audience – via real-time texting, messaging, and simply speaking – will influence whether she takes her own life or continues to live. A compassionate exploration into the consequences of bullying, "You Can Ask Me How I’m Doing" investigates the roles that social media and technology play in this double-edged crave for attention and cry for help. By interacting with the audience through direct address, video, smart phones, improvisation, ad-libbing, chance, and risk, this play disrupts theatre in a manner as urgent as these young people’s crisis.

A son is leaving. Hours before the flight, son and father try to have a conversation. The father speaks only Cantonese, the son only English. They drink tea. They have decades of regret and silence to reconcile. The son returns five years later to a changed family, to a mother he hardly recognizes. She has gone on a journey of her own. She must rediscover the joy of being a parent to her child; the son must learn the responsibility of being a child to his parents. A story of unfulfilled hopes and remarkable achievement, "Pu-Erh" shows how language can challenge, divide, and unite a family. With dialogue in English and Cantonese, this fresh and urgent examination of a modern immigrant family will speak to anyone who has wondered if life begins when you move away.