“★★★★ Utterly intoxicating” -Everything Theatre 

“★★★★ Evocative, hard-hitting, haunting” -Broadway World 

People of Theatre – Top 25 Shows of 2025 

5 Nominations Fringe Theatre Awards, including Best Play, Best Ensemble, Best Production 

Transferring from a sold out run at the Barbican in fall 2025, KISS WITNESS’ latest production is a mesmerising family drama set in the underworld (the realm of the hungry ghosts), exploring the intergenerational trauma born from the pressures of meeting society’s impossible standards.  

This sardonic yet tender ensemble production powerfully combines horror, physical performance, live cinema, dark comedy and Chinese mythology – in which ‘hungry ghosts’ are reincarnated souls of those who were greedy or violent in their lives. In the nightmarish underworld of hungry ghosts, a migrant family confronts the true cost of their pursuit of the American dream. Mother migrated from a life of poverty in Hong Kong to become a capitalist success story. Meanwhile, his daughters’ lives spiral in opposite directions: Little Sister ascends to classical piano stardom, while Big Sister is ravaged by a mysterious illness. Each path eventually leads them to the same pit of despair and insatiable hunger, unless their familial bond can somehow transcend the cycle of inherited trauma. 

KISS WITNESS harnesses the visceral power of horror as a genre to expose the intergenerational trauma that lies beneath the surface of ‘model minority’ narratives. 

Cast and Creatives
Elisabeth Gunawan
Vinna Law
Sook Kuan Tang
Ting-Ning Wen

Writer: Elisabeth Gunawan
Directing Team: Elisabeth Gunawan, Matej Matejka, Sook Kuan Tang, Namoo Chae Lee
Movement Director: Matej Matejka
Sound & Music: Li Yi Lei
Set & Video: Erin Guan
Puppetry: Aya Nakamura
Lighting Designer: Natalia Chan
Costume Designer: Ezra Barnard
Props & SFX: Elisabeth Gunawan
Stage Manager: Hui Tse Liu

Photography: Ikin Yum