Three Thousand Troubled Threads
By: Chiew Siah Tei
Directed by: Muriel Romanes
Co-produced by: Stellar Quines, Edinburgh International Festival & The Byre Theatre
From mountains to the sea. No matter what river. No matter how many. They go to the sea.
Set in present-day Glasgow, Three Thousand Troubled Threads tells the story of Ying, a second-generation young Chinese woman. The play probes her confusion about her identity, her self-pitying mother who is immersed in her past, and her relationship with a Slovakian student who seeks comfort from another lonely soul, and confuses lust with love.
Three Thousand Troubled Threads mixes film projection, live action and four languages to convey the complexity of this powerful story. The stage acts as a living backdrop, carrying projections of moving images, Chinese calligraphy and English subtitles.