The head of the theatre hosting the Shen Yun dance troupe in Sydney says the company would not be intimidated to pull the shows by any “outrageous” anonymous threats and that the publicity had increased interest in the show.

On Monday, the Gold Coast venue for the Shen Yun performances was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat, with a similar threat forcing the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s official residence, The Lodge, in Canberra the next day.

Graeme Kearns, the chief executive of Foundation Theatres – the operator of the Sydney Lyric and Capitol theatres – told the Guardian that public interest in the production has intensified despite the alarming nature of the two threats.

He said Foundation Theatres had not received any threats but it would not be intimidated into shutting down the production.

He declined to say whether the Lyric would be beefing up its security presence for the Sydney shows in March, which he expected to sell out. The Lyric, which holds 2,000 patrons, will host 11 performances scheduled over 10 days, beginning 20 March.

“Our job in theatre is to absolutely defend the right to tell stories about culture and yes, some of those stories reflect on recent history,” Kearns said.

“That is what artistic endeavour is supposed to do.”

Threats against PM’s residence

According to a translation by The Epoch Times of the Mandarin language threats sent to Shen Yun’s parent body, the Falun Dafa religious movement, the prime minister’s Canberra residence, the Lodge, would be “blown into ruins and blood will flow like a river” if the performing arts company’s Australian performances were allowed to proceed. The Epoch Times is linked to the Falun Dafa religious movement.

Lucy Zhao, the president of the organisation that has brought the show to Australia – the Falun Dafa Association of Australia – said there had been a 20% spike in ticket sales for the Melbourne and Adelaide shows in the past 24 hours.

But the organisation had also received a number of calls from ticket holders expressing concerns for their safety and “a few, not many” requests for refunds.

Additional security personnel have been engaged to police all three venues at the expense of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, she said.

A statement posted on the Falun Dafa Australia information centre website accused the Chinese Communist Party of making the threats, alleging they are part of an “escalating campaign of transnational repression” targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts and Falun Gong practitioners worldwide.

“The coordinated pattern of bomb threats, death threats, and systematic intimidation constitutes more than harassment – it reflects tactics consistent with state-sponsored intimidation designed to silence dissent beyond China’s borders,” the statement said.

‘Anti-China narratives’

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra dismissed Falun Dafa’s claims.

“We have noticed relevant reports but have no knowledge with what happened,” the embassy statement said.

“China always opposes all forms of violent attacks.”

China also opposes Falun Gong, describing the movement as a “notorious anti-humanity, anti-society and anti-science cult”, hence its legal ban in mainland China. Falun Gong strongly denies the CCP’s claim that it is a cult and says it is used to persecute the group.

“The so-called ‘Shen Yun’ is a political tool used by ‘Falun Gong’ to disseminate anti-China narratives and cult ideology, seek to expand its influence, and amass financial gains under the guise of promoting traditional Chinese culture,” the embassy statement said.

“This constitutes a distortion and desecration of Chinese culture, and represents deception, manipulation, and harm to audiences. We believe that the Australian people are able to distinguish right from wrong.”

The Australian Falun Gong statement said more than 150 bomb and death threats have targeted Shen Yun performances and members of the Falun Gong community across the United States, Canada, Europe, Taiwan, and other democratic societies in the past two years.

“Some of these threats have been traced to sources in China,” the statement said.

“The scale, repetition, and global coordination of these threats raise serious concerns about foreign interference operations aimed at suppressing protected freedoms in democratic nations.”

According to a 2024 New York Times investigation into the finances of Falun Dafa – also known as Falun Gong – its Shen Yun dancing and acrobatic troupe had contributed more than a quarter of a billion US dollars to the movement by 2023.

As Shen Yun travels the world, the local Falun Dafa associations book the venues, print the fliers, buy the advertising and sell the tickets, sometimes going into debt to cover upfront costs, the NYT found.

Volunteers are reimbursed once all the tickets are sold and any remaining profits are sent back to the 173-hectare, high-security compound in Deerpark in upstate New York that serves as the group’s global headquarters and Shen Yun’s training base.