REVIEW: Stream
Review Date: Weds 22nd July, 7pm @Golden Goose Theatre
REVIEWS
Zoe Yingying Xie
7/24/20262 min read
©️Photographer: Stephanie Chu.
Having followed Stream since its early workshop at RCSSD, I was interested to see how the work had developed into a fully realised production. Written and designed by playwright and lighting designer Yaqi Sun, and directed by Clara Seitz, Stream uses ASMR as a theatrical language, a form that demands careful coordination between every department.
What distinguishes Stream from many other examples of headphone theatre is that its use of headphones is not merely experiential. The form is integral to the subject matter. The work centres on a young listener, played by Yeohyeon Jung, and her long-term attachment to an online streamer, Aki, played by Mia Sumida. Over ten years, Aki’s voice becomes a source of comfort, routine and emotional refuge.
The headphones therefore function as more than a technical device. They create the private space through which the listener withdraws from reality and constructs a sense of safety. While headphone theatre can sometimes leave audiences remembering the novelty of the experience more clearly than the work itself, it gives the form a clear dramaturgical purpose. The headphones become a medium of escape, but also one of dependency, intimacy and imagined connection.
Yaqi Sun’s writing avoids a straightforward chronological structure. Instead, the narrative unfolds through fragments of memory, sensation and emotional association. This may prove challenging for audiences who prefer a clearly signposted plot, but the fragmented dramaturgy is appropriate to the material.
The structure reflects the way comfort and nostalgia often operate. We do not necessarily remember our own development as a coherent timeline. More often, we return to isolated moments, voices and sensations that once offered reassurance. In this context, the production’s discontinuity feels less like an absence of structure than an attempt to represent memory, loneliness and emotional dependency on their own terms.
Rather than offering a simple judgement on the listener’s attachment, the work remains attentive to the blurred boundaries between care, dependency, desire and obsession. It also considers Aki’s position as a content creator, whose apparent intimacy must be repeatedly produced and maintained for an unseen audience.
Stream is an ambitious work that asks its audience to engage with mediated intimacy as something constructed, unequal and nevertheless emotionally real.
★★★★
For more information, please visit: https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/whatson/stream
Credits
Producer: Wangjiayu Chu (Stephanie)
Playwright: Yaqi Sun
Director: Clara Seitz
Set & Costume Designer: Jiuming Duan
Sound Designer: Alex Ayling
Lighting Designer: Yaqi Sun
Creative Associate: Sarah Hyojin Kim
Performers: Mia Sumida & Yeohyeon Jung
Sound Behind Curtain
A place for all Asian artists.
Your gift keeps the curtain rising for Asian creatives.
About
Contact
© 2026 Sound Behind Curtain. All rights reserved.
Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy