Radio Neighbourhood
Outdoor Dance + Radio Drama
Social Innovation Project awarded Ideas and Pioneers Fund by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Next edition is coming in Spring 2022. Stay tuned!

After a year of living with COVID-19, the outdoor performance provides new strategies to engage the community with live art in the post-pandemic world. With a creative team of East and Southeast Asian artists, the performance tells stories about cross-cultural interactions and engages with post-humanist thinking. It explores humanity’s desire for the ideal society and addresses the most pressing concerns of the modern world, including migration and human rights.

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The event will take place in the open space of residential houses across London. The audience will be able to enjoy the performances from home through their windows or balconies with the sound and music broadcasted over Internet radio. 

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The performance is a 30-minute outdoor dance drama with voiceover that involves conversations and interactions of two performers (human and alien), focusing on questions of home, displacement and memory. The story engages with ancient East Asian mythology and conveys cultural significance relating to issues of belief and identity, transcending cultural backgrounds and different communities. It explores people’s psychological conditions when facing pandemic and socio-political instabilities. In response to the recent hate crimes against Asians, the work in particular deals with issues of identity related to ethnicity, race and gender, and confronts the historical portrayal of those raced and gendered bodies.

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With a core creative team of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) heritage, it provides a platform to support artists who are currently underrepresented in the arts and culture industry in the UK. It is an ongoing performance project that we will be touring the story (score and script) and hiring ESEA local talents to be part of the team, including performers and musicians, to continue developing the work and to perform in the communities that they live in. We aim to make the work available to more spaces and reach a wider audience through touring across London, the UK and beyond. 

'We at the Migration Museum were mesmerised by Radio Neighbourhood. This wonderfully choreographed performance touched on so many topics related to migration such as tolerance and understanding, language and building strong links with a new place. We really enjoyed hosting the performance and noticed that the audience grew as the performance progressed. The front of house was an excellent location because the crowd and choreography really drew more and more people into the space. We welcome these types of creative interactions in our space that are topical, attract new audiences to our space and serve as an expression of creativity in a new media.'
- Jason Page, Operation Manager of Migration Museum, Trustee of Deptford X.

'When they approached me regarding Radio Neighbourhood, I was keen to support their return to Omnibus and again witnessed a rich, gritty and poetic  piece which both moved and entertained me throughout. Radio Neighbourhood illustrates Ghost and John’s  unique and intelligent approach to creating distinctive storytelling and engaging theatre.'
- Marie McCarthy, Artistic Director of Omnibus Theatre.

'Life is
the choices you make,
the steps that you plant,
the stories you pull from the air,
while freighted with wonder
you weave through an alien space.'

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- a poem response from 26 Shining Light: Roger Morris

Third Edition:

16, 17, 23 October 2021 - Bramber Green; British Library and Omnibus Theatre; Migration Museum

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Second Edition:

13, 17 July 2021 - Evelyn Community Centre; Deptford X and Royal Docks

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First Edition:

24 April 2021 - Cornmill Gardens

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The events were

- funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation - Ideas and Pioneers fund

- commissioned by Bloomsbury Festival, Deptford X 2021 and Bow Arts

- supported by British Library, Migration Museum, Omnibus Theatre, Hidden Keileon, the Albany, Lewisham Council, ShapesLewisham, West Silvertown Foundation

- radio supported by Bloomsbury Radio, AAJA Radio

Concept: Jennifer Lim, Ghost and John
Curator: Sandra Lam

Scriptwriting: John
Sound and Music: Ghost 

Movement Deviser: Pui Yung Shum

Audio Actors: Siu-see Hung, Jennifer Lim

Narrator: Daniel York Loh
Devising Performers: Pui Yung Shum, Yun Cheng, Jason Yip, Sydney Robertso, Wah-Chi Vong and John Chan

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Banner Photographer: Jeffrey Choy

Illustration: Pui Yung Shum

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We are currently in conversations with different local councils, cultural units and funding bodies. Aiming at putting on a 4th Edition at Easter break 2022, please contact us if you are interested in collaborating on this project focusing on tackling the current hurdles in the performing arts industry. 

To know more about this performance, please do not hesitate to contact Sandra Lam through hiddenkeileon@gmail.com or us through info@ghostandjohn.art