Onatti writes new exciting plays and uses different modern styles of theatre to make foreign languages accessible and mix language learning with entertainment.
To achieve this we craft the spoken word to complement your teaching.
A play for students learning Mandarin
A play for students learning Mandarin
福来酒馆
Play touring from Nov 2026
The Fortune Tavern is a lively meeting place for the locals in a small town in China. It's busy, full of characters, and always buzzing with life. It’s the heart of the town. There’s just one problem: it is not making enough money.
The struggling owners see a chance to save their business when they hear about a local talent competition with a tempting cash prize. There’s just one problem… they need to find someone in this town with talent!
This fast-paced, interactive comedy brings a Chinese tavern to life with music, performance, and plenty of chaos, as everyone in the village shows their talent—or lack of.
Performed entirely in accessible Mandarin and featuring elements of traditional Chinese costume and culture, this engaging production offers a fun way to help build students’ confidence in Mandarin. This is our second Mandarin production, and continues our support to learners in an enjoyable and accessible way.
Expect laughter, surprises, and a talent show that might not go quite as planned…
LANGUAGE
This play is all in Mandarin and performed by 2 native Mandarin actors. The script includes lots of repetition and delivered in a slow easy to understand way.
AGE
Teenagers
LENTGH
This play is 45 mins long
PARTICIPATION
Some students from the audience will be encouraged to take on the roles of several characters in the play.
This is not pre-rehearsed. This adds a very entertaining spontaneous element to Onatti's performances.
ACTORS TBC
Christ's Hospital School | March 2026
... Amazing
Thank you for the amazing performance today. Qi Zhang and Yi Hsin Wang did a fantastic job, and the feedback from our students has been very positive. They truly enjoyed the play.
We would love to have your team back in the next academic year, if possible, and make it a regularly scheduled Mandarin play for our students.
Previous play
Benenden School, | March 2026
...a real success!
The performance was a real success! Our students thoroughly enjoyed it. Our GCSE-level students were able to understand around 80% of the language and they followed the story, the humour and the plot twists very well. The audience response was fantastic with laughter throughout and the interactive sections where students were invited to take part worked brilliantly. Many thanks to the actors, Yi Hsin Wang and Qi Zhang for delivering such an engaging and enjoyable experience.
Previous play
The Castle School | March 2026
...Excellent
I wanted to say that the play today was excellent. I'd say the best Onatti performance we've had. We were very impressed and students gave very positive feedback. Please pass on our thanks and praise to the actors.
Previous play
Every play is accompanied with worksheets. These are available to download on this website.
They contain a synopsis of the play, some extracts from the written script and some useful words and phrases