Huayi 2026: The Sun at Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Tomohiro Maekawa × Tora Hsu – A contemporary Japanese classic reimagined

Winner of the 2025 Taipei Theatre Awards for Best Director and Best Video Design

International premiere at Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2026

We are destined to kill each other before understanding one another.

In a post-apocalyptic Earth in the late 21st century, the world’s population has been diminished. Those that remain are divided into two factions: the Nox, the new superior mutant species who rule the planet despite their intolerance of sunlight, and the Curio, the original human species who now live under subjugation. With clashing beliefs and divided stances, the two share only one thing in common—the will to survive.

The Sun presents a dystopian future damaged by bioterrorist attacks, a fractured reality where people are not only segregated by intelligence and physical ability, but also by their beliefs in how they should coexist.

Premiered in 2011, The Sun is Japanese playwright/director Tomohiro Maekawa’s smash hit science fiction fable that has been restaged multiple times as well as enjoyed movie and novel adaptations.

Now, continuing his pursuit of naturalistic aesthetics, award-winning Taiwanese theatre director Tora Hsu leads a phenomenal Taiwanese cast in reinterpreting The Sun in a post-pandemic context. This new staging reinvestigates how we confront divided and extreme positions in a fragmented world, while finding a way to coexist with those who are different from ourselves.

The Sun was commissioned by Taipei Performing Arts Center and premiered in Taiwan in 2024.