Team
May35th is a collective work by dozens of creatives, activists, writers and more across the globe, the following are the core team working hard on continuing the works
-
Kim Pearce
Director
Trained on the Birbeck Theatre Directing MFA, and completed her apprenticeship at the Manchester Royal Exchange, Chichester Festival Theatre and the National Theatre.
She was resident director on the 'Curious Incident of The Dog In The Nighttime' for four years, including a world tour, bringing the show to Hong Kong in 2018.
She is currently the outgoing Co-Artistic Director of Papergang Theatre, a theatre charity with the aim of improving the representation of British East/South East Asian (BESEA) culture across the dramatic arts primarily in UK theatre. For Papergang she directed 'Violet', 'Freedom Hi 自由閪', 'Dreamers’ and 'Invisible Harmony 無形的和諧'. She curated 'Tiananmen 30'.
She produced and associate directed 'A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong.'
Other directing includes 'Forgotten 遺忘.' by Daniel York Loh, 'Love Steals Us From Lonliness' by Gary Owen, 'Unearthed' by Alys Metcalf. She is also Director of Acting at Ballet Rambert for 'Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby'.
-
Lit Ming Wai
Producer
Ming Wai Lit is a theatre producer and activist dedicated to amplifying voices that are often silenced. Her work focuses on human rights, freedom, and the preservation of memory, using theatre as a platform for advocacy and change.
As co-founder of Stage June Fourth, now based in the UK, she remains committed to her ethos of refusing to forget and continues to fight for justice through the power of the stage.
Her acclaimed productions in Hong Kong include:
Edelweiss (2009, 2010)
Beliefs Soar (2012, 2013)
Wang Dan (2014)
A Glimpse of Hope (2017)
May 35th (2019) -
Anonymous Team
Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the ongoing censorship and danger, many of the team members at May35th involved in the production remain anonymous or use pseudonyms for their safety
This anonymity underscores the play’s urgent message about the enduring impact of state repression and the courage of those who resist it.
-
Co-Producer
With extensive experience in producing international projects that bridge cultures and artistic disciplines. They have collaborated with renowned arts organisations and festivals across the globe, including those in the UK and Asia. Their work has contributed to the global arts scene, fostering cultural exchange and innovation.
-
Dramaturg
Trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, they truly believe that arts and theater are powerful tools for soft power, allowing people to voice their opinions and be heard. Let us not forget the importance of this.
-
Translator
Advocate for the arts for decades, their career has encompassed various creative disciplines, from performance and storytelling to artistic direction. They have played a significant role in fostering artistic expression for ESEA communities, providing platforms for exploration across multiple mediums.
-
Set and Costume Designer
They were born and raised in Hong Kong, and they experienced first-hand the upheaval of the summer of 1989. Never did they imagine that what disappeared in Beijing in 1989 would swiftly vanish in their hometown, Hong Kong. Too sorrowful to remember. Too shameful to forget.
-
Lighting Designer
After receiving professional training, they worked in stage lighting and is currently working in the heart of London's West End.
-
Sound Designer
Graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Sound Design. They worked with various theatre and music companies in Hong Kong and the UK. They moved to London in 2021 and is looking for a new home
-
Video Artist
Independent film director
-
Production Manager
A Hongkonger who gave up self-owned event company, family and friends then moved to the UK just for the sake of kid's future. Started the first and only employed job here as a nursing assistant. Refuses to Hong Kong histories rewrite, brain washes education and deprives freedom of speech. NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET!
-
Assistant Stage Manager
A freelancer in Theatre and Event production
Director’s Note - Kim Pearce
I was born, a white girl, in the 80’s in an English village- as culturally distant from Hong Kong and mainland China as you can get. Yet the memory and spirit of the victims of the June 4th Massacre found me in childhood, touched my soul and left me altered. I remember crying in a classroom over a poem on my GCSE English syllabus;
‘Tiananmen Square is broad and clean,
And you can’t tell
Where the dead have been…’.
The entrance to a stage is a gate through which memory, the departed, can enter.
In 2019, I was part of organizing a 5 hour durational art event in London to mark the 30th Anniversary of June 4th. As the Anti-Extradition protests gathered momentum, I joined a year of solidarity marches and activism. I forged artistic connections and then came several more theatre works on the subject of Hong Kong and June 4th. One of them, Invisible Harmony 无形的和谐 at the Southbank Centre in 2020, addressed the complexities of previous representations of June 4th in UK theatre- it has been viewed through the frame of white Western priorities. Then the pandemic came. In lockdown, we watched ‘May 35th’ as a live stream from Hong Kong, an incredible moment. Less than a month later, we were standing in the street (not allowed to gather in houses at the time) crying in the aftermath of enactment of the National Security Law. The next show we made together was about grief, confusion and loss. It ended by asking the audience to illuminate the dark stage with their phone flashlights and hold a vigil. A vigil for the victims of June 4th and those lost in the Anti-Extradition protests-both those who were seen and those veiled under hidden circumstances.
I am honoured to be asked to join this mission to amplify the voices of the Tiananmen Mothers. I am also a little apprehensive- Ming Wai has entrusted me with the task of creating the international version of the play. I wonder if the Hong Kongers in the audience may find it a little odd at first to see such a familiar play performed in English by local performers. What frame does this version of the play take place within?
One of the questions the play asks is how can the humanity of those who were so vividly alive and then so brutally murdered be transmitted. How can that transmission of memory survive the eroding effect of oppression, forced forgetfulness and finally the devastation of time. Creating this international version is intended as another act of transmission. We open the gate and invite memory and the departed to take up a place in our hearts.
My not completely explicable connection somewhere in my soul with June 4th and the way it has shaped my life is testament to the power of their spirit and the successful transmission of their memory through art.
I remember the victims of the June 4th Incident.
I stand with the Tiananmen Mothers.
A dedication to all the Hong Konger theatre makers I know, and those that are working on this show, who have had to relocate to the UK and start building their careers again. I’m privileged to have you as colleagues.
Producer’s Note - Lit Ming Wai
Having endured the anti-extradition law movement in 2019, Hongkongers now possess a deeper understanding of "June 4th," akin to the "Tiananmen Mothers," forging a shared destiny under the oppression of an authoritarian regime. Over the past 30+ years, the suppression of human rights, persecution of political dissidents and prisoners of conscience, arbitrary detention without trial, pervasive surveillance, and numerous sensitive topics and red lines, once confined to mainland China, have now become part of Hong Kong's reality.
This is a play for all parents and children-
If you have a ten-year old child, completely untamed and innocent, with eyes so full of beauty. And yet, you know full well that once the unjust regime catches eye on the youth, they will be trampled on ruthlessly by the system, and their freedom will be snatched away. Would you, still, wish your child to be able to tell right from wrong, and to take risks in pursuit of the truth?
Now imagine that you were the one who died 30 years ago. Looking down from heaven, you found that your parents are still under the regime’s surveillance, and are forced to live in a world of lies. Will you, then, urge your grey-haired parents to forgive and forget, or would you rather that they remain steadfast in their faith for justice?
Do you have an absolute answer?