Alexander Charnaud

This month the Shanghai Repertory Theatre will be bringing back the very successful June Extravaganza. Taking place between 3 and 12 June, the event promises to be 10 days of fun, thespians and amateur dramatics.

As one of Shanghai’s premiere performing arts locations, the Shanghai Repository Theatre (SRT) is a production company that no fan of the theatre should ignore. With credits to their name including the critically acclaimed Twelfth Night and the equally excellent Snow Queen, their track record in well-put together classics is unsurpassed in the city. The June Extravaganza however, steps out of the company’s comfort zone and brings a mix of professional and amateur productions to the Shanghai theatre faithful.

Less of an event and more of a mini festival, the June Extravaganza is akin to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. With multiple performances over an extended period of time, the focus is on getting people involved, more so than it is trying to win any Laurence Olivier Awards.

“There isn’t nearly enough theatre and live performances in Shanghai, and the SRT really know how to put on a show,” says Armand Morel, an attendee of last year’s event. “It’s an opportunity to see a variety of different productions and expose yourself to a side of Shanghai that you don’t often get to see.”

From Beckett’s classic Catastrophe to local high school performances and a brief, but much anticipated, encounter with an all female cast, the performances on the cards will be as varied as ever. One of the highlights of the event will be the conclusion of SRT’s Creative Collaborators Competition. The final part of this three-stage contest will see finalists put their best foot forward to see their original one-act pieces fully realised in the public domain.

Additionally, SRT will be joining forces with HAL Publishing to put on Slam Theatre. An all-new event, Slam Theatre embraces the chaos within creativity and tasks teams to devise a one-act performance before performing them to the public the very next day.

The beauty of this mini festival is it features a wide range of styles and allows in-the-know theatre types and relative novices alike to enjoy theatre the way it was supposed to be – unpretentious and full of heart.