The Tea

You are cordially invited to join drag performer Ania Upstill as they draw from their love of history and botany to recreate Robert Fortune, the real-life botanist who stole tea from China. Hear him spill the tea on his dirty dealings, and get your own fortune read in tea leaves by Fortune himself!

Tea, ubiquitously associated with the British Empire, was not at all British in origin. The story of how tea was stolen from China to became the most British of beverages is one full of drama, racism, piracy, drugs and, perhaps most surprising of all, botany. This show focuses on a most aptly named person, Robert Fortune, without whom the history of the tea – and perhaps the British Empire – would not have been the same.

Performer and Artistic Director Ania Upstill Ania (they/them) is a queer and non binary performer, theatre maker, teaching artist and award-winning clown based in New York City. Ania is a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre (Professional Training Program). Outside of BM’s work, Ania most recently appeared in War and Play, a production in the 2023 Criminal Queerness Festival produced by National Queer Theater and Today’s Mess, a clown show about diversity, at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theater.