Theatre Smith-Gilmour in Association with Crow’s Theatre; Pu Songling: Strange Tales (World Premiere). Adapted by Michele Smith, Diana Tso, Steven Hao, Madelaine Hodges, John Ng and Dean Gilmour (thanks to Michael Man, Lindsay Wu, Jeff Yung and Rosie Simon), Directed by Michele Smith, with Dean Gilmour, John Ng 伍健, Diana Tso 曹楓, 郝邦宇 Steven Hao, Madelaine Hodges 賀美倫, and Noah Feaver, Lighting Designer; Ting – Huan 挺歡 Christine Urquhart. Studio Theatre at Crow’s, January 16, 2026, continues until February 1; tickets here.
The set is simple — a flat black backdrop, and a long wooden table set with mismatched wooden chairs. Against it, five performers tell and act out a series of stories drawn from the treasure trove of tales written by Pu Songling (蒲松齡, 1640 – 1715), which he collected into a book titled Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai zhiyi.
The stories, which he wrote in the hundreds, are a series of supernatural vignettes, both tragic and comic, that reveal human nature as much as they do the demons, ghosts, and other otherworldly beings that become major characters.
Naturally, there isn’t time or space to include all of them in an evening at the theatre, and the selection by the adaptors, which include some of the cast, is judicious. They ebb and flow from the simply weird and strange to the absurd and comical to the tragic in a kind of stream of consciousness where one picks up just after the other ends. Each of the performers has a chance to stand in the spotlight.
Performance
With an overhead light that changes colour, and a table that can be used as such, or as a bed, turned over as a barrier, or crawled under to hide or indicate a second level, and simple costumes that consist of casual, loose clothes — and toques for Dean Gilmour, John Ng, and Steven Hao that are removed halfway through to reveal messy hat heads — the production relies heavily on storytelling and characterization skills.
The formula works admirably. All of the performers have their moments to shine as the storyteller or main character, with Dean Gilmour in a standout role as the Judge who’s been brought back from the Kingdom of 10 Hells. He slobbers and scrabbles his way to helping the dimwitted student who’s sought his help with great gusto.
All five are entirely invested in the performance, which range from slapstick-like physical comedy to anguish and fear in a kaleidoscope of short scenes. Their energy level never drops, and it propels the winding narrative through all of its ups and downs.
Final Thoughts
Songling didn’t shy away from serious themes, or an examination of human weakness. There’s the incorrigible fornicator (Steven Hao, as the convincingly self serving rogue) who lives to regret his ways, and the woman who’s tormented and raped by demons — but lives to exact her own kind of revenge on the household who shunned her instead of helping her. Played by Madelaine Hodges, she’s both intense and relatable.
Common themes include hauntings, as in the story of Commissioner Wu, who is pursued and tormented by the ghosts of all the rebels he’s responsible for killing. There are demons and other creatures who make the lives of hapless humans miserable— and dying may not even end the torment. To break the mould, every once in a while they decide to help out, but always with a touch of the macabre and unexpected.
The takeaway: we humans are at the mercy of many forces that toss and juggle us around at will. The best we can do is hang on as long and as best we can. Virtue is valued, at least sometimes, and self indulgence and wickedness are punished.
Out of its venerable source material, Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Pu Songling: Strange Tales creates a semi-chaotic jumble of storytelling and enactment that takes the audience on a wild — and very enjoyable — ride of ups and downs.
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