You Never Touched the Dirt 世外

A turf war between the old and new owners of a gentrified land in China, joined by gods, ghosts and unnamed spirits.

The Li family would be enjoying their new lake-view luxury villa outside of the city, were they not surrounded by the gardeners, maids, and security guards who had once owned the land--not to mention the Gods, ghosts and unnamed spirits there for thousands of years before them... A play about economic transformation, the dreams it enables and those it crushes.

中文剧本下载

Development and Production History

2021, May: Shanghai Culture Square, produced by Nanjing University's MFA Theater Company.

2019, June 3-13: Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks Festival, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Cast: Holly Chou, John D. Haggerty, Daniel K. Isaac, Kenneth Lee, Jennifer Lim, and Julyana Soelistyo.

Sets by Andrew Moerdyk, costumes by Heather McDevitt Barton, lights by Jiyoun Chang, sound by Brendan Aanes, props by Raphael Mishler, production stage manager Melanie Aponte.

2018-2019: Nanjing University's MFA Theater Company. The company created two performance versions: one outdoor for immersive theatrical experience, and one indoor for proscenium theater.

2017: Staged reading, Edinburgh International Festival as part of "New and Now: International Plays from the Royal Court Theatre", directed by Sam Pritchard. Cast: Paul Courtenay Hyu, Wendy Kweh, Sarah Lam, Kwong Loke, Colin Ryan. (To watch a 10-min video clip of the reading on BBC, please click HERE.)

2016-2018: Created at the Royal Court’s International Playwrights’ Programme, with the support of the British Council.