Pu Songling is a 17th century Chinese writer whose work blends myth and reality to criticize the dark side of society. Depicting the ‘strange’ in stories about ghosts and foxes, he shows the real world. The cast and creatives love the mysterious and mythical nature of his writing which is a nuanced and human portrait of his world but most importantly of the world we live in today.

5 actors gather around a table. The table is a stage and the actors leap on it, crawl under it and create images of a corpse coming to life, Mr. Liu remembers his past lives as a dog, a horse, a snake, the horrible Wutong Spirit is slain, dead soldiers run in fear of the Wild Dog, Judge Lu performs a heart transplant and an old fox gets revenge.

Theatre Smith-Gilmour

Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith met while studying at the School of Jacques Lecoq in Paris in 1978. Since 1980, Theatre Smith-Gilmour has created over 40 shows, 19 of which are original plays. They have toured Canada and 14 other countries, internationally. Their work was nominated for 40 Dora Awards (winning 10), they won the Montreal English Critics Award for Best Ensemble. They were nominated twice for the Chalmers’ Best Canadian Play Award and nominated twice for the Sterling Awards in Edmonton. In 2024 they celebrated 44 years of creation.

In 2018 they presented the premiere of a new theatrical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Classic LES MISERABLES at the Theatre Centre and in 2023 premiered METAMORPHOSES 2023 at Crow’s Theatre. In 2018 they were also invited to Kunming, China by the Yunnan Provincial Theatre to teach and direct.

Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith taught their work at the National Theatre School and the Shanghai Drama Academy.

*Please be advised this performance is restricted to ages 14+.*