Ancestral Time Travel Agency

You’re in the Song Dynasty in China, your feet are bound to a mere three inches, you pray to your ancestors not to make a fool of yourself in this matchmaking nonsense you’re about to attend, when, in the first place, you had no say in it whatsoever.

You’re a teenager, your choices are bound by a degree certificate that you need to obtain in a foreign country that you have never been to. You pray to your ancestors again, you struggle to understand the point of it all. 

Ancestral Time Travel Agency is inspired by Louiseanne and Isabella’s Hong Kong heritage and their respective family histories. Using a parkour set to physically and metaphorically time travel, characters depicted from memories, and delving into ancient Chinese customs such as footbinding, they search for what it means to be a woman/non-binary person in the world today.

Photography by John Chan (@windmovesmountain).

Writer and Performer Isabella Leung

Movement Director and Performer Louiseanne Wong

Lighting and Sound Designer Yanni Ng

Composer Val Popov

Assistant Producer Christine Poon

Stage Manager Michelle Yu

Voice-Over Artists Mei Mac, Benedict Wong

With special thanks to Jiahui Cai, mandla, Nasima Bee, Gun Suen.

This show has previously been supported by New Earth Academy Makers Plus, The Lowry, Horizons Collective, and HOME Manchester.