The Edinburgh Festival Fringe solo show "The Talent" has been brought to the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, meeting Chinese audiences for the first time. Inside a soundproof recording booth, a voice actor explores with the audience the relationship between voice and human existence.

The play is written and directed by the Action Hero theater company and artist Deborah Pearson, with set design by Camilla Clarke.

With no set changes, the performer, over the course of more than an hour, follows the instructions of two unseen "voice directors." She skillfully summons every kind of sound you can imagine from daily life: cereal commercials, cartoon characters, car advertisements, scam phone calls... She sounds like everything except herself. Alone yet patient, she fulfills the absurd demands of the "voice directors."

Producer Tang Shi recalled how she felt when she first saw the original production of "The Talent" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the summer of 2023.

"The expressiveness of the original cast was extraordinarily powerful," she said. "The entire audience was pulled by actress Gemma Paintin's voice into one reality after another. They doubled over with laughter, and stunned into silence the next moment. It makes you believe every ordinary individual can shape the world."

The Shanghai performance stars Ding Meiting, an actress from the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center.

Performance info

Dates: October 27 to November 1, 2pm/7:30pm

Tickets: 180-380 yuan

Venue: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center 上海话剧艺术中心

Address: 288 Anfu Rd 安福路288号