17/03/2026
Eighteen Lives (祖宗十八代) —— ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO📸
Here’s a first look at our dress run moments as we count down to opening night🤩
✨Synopsis:
Three friends get into a huge argument, yet realise their conflict began in past lives. From the Xinhai Revolution to the late Qing dynasty, from the Tang dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, they travel back through eighteen generations, and keep meeting again and again in different roles across different eras.
👀‼️ What makes this show especially unusual at the festival is that it is a full Chinese-language stage comedy that deliberately pushes beyond the conventional boundaries of theatre space, brings together Chinese poetry, music, kung fu and philosophy, and offers a distinctly Chinese way of seeing time and the world.
Just like an emotional rollercoaster, the whole experience moves rapidly between humour and heartbreak, creating a richly interactive and surprisingly intimate relationship between performers and the audience.
The show also includes carefully crafted English opening captions with cultural context in mind, so even if you do not speak Mandarin, you can still follow the humour, rhythm, and emotional layers of the work.
📅 Dates: 25 March – 4 April
📍 Venue: TW Explosives Factory, St Kilda
⚠️The show is performed in Mandarin, with English Opening Captions.
🎫 Click the link in bio / visit our event page
#墨尔本生活
