Our Artistic Director Rachel Clare visited Hong Kong with a host of British programmers and promoters at an event organised by Arts Council England in collaboration with the British Council Hong Kong. The idea behind the visit was to enable British arts professionals to better understand the Hong Kong performing arts scene, see work from Hong Kong companies and meet locally based theatre makers. The trip was originally scheduled for 2020, and was delayed due to the pandemic.

The trip coincided with Hong Kong Arts Festival in March, allowing viewing of work, and it also included visiting West Kowloon Cultural Centre, a set of theatre studios, and a meeting with the Leisure and Culture Services Department of Hong Kong, who oversee all the state theatres. The delegates also arranged their own meetings.

The UK delegation was organised by Gavin Stride through Farnham Maltings and included Sud Basu – an independent producer. The trip was just before we started a strategic partnership with the company he was about to found, Third Version Creative. Sud and Rachel had the opportunity to meet artists Kingsley Ng and Stephanie Cheung, and this was the start of a dialogue on future collaborations.