Cinderella and Frankenstein’s Monster Are Dead is a powerful and imaginative play which launched tonight at Brighton’s Lantern Theatre, leaving us full of compassion for the brave character portrayed and a new insight into the immigrant experience.
This one-woman play is set in an American high school, a place full of competition and teenage angst. When we first meet 昭兰 (Zhao Lan), an exchange student, she is full of hope. There is a new production being cast at school and she dreams of being the lead role, Cinderella. She’s obsessed about the text, identified the motivations behind it and, though her friends won’t understand, she’s determined to audition. Bound up in the storytelling are themes of arrival, connection, determinism and hope, and as we see the character move forward, there is a strong sense of where she has come from, who she is aiming whilst trying deal with the expectations of others.
The play has been developed and created by The Beachcombers, a New York based collective that aim to shine a light on under-represented identities and trauma. They achieve this convincingly, drawing us into the story through the authenticity of the actor (Lan Jiang) who puts herself right in the middle of the action with nowhere to hide. We particularly liked the stark staging, using books as props throughout to illustrate the piece in creative ways and the carefully selected music used to accentuate the feelings on show. The sound designer and composer, Lily Rose Barron, has also added a wonderful soundtrack. The script cleverly weaves in the well known texts of Cinderella and Frankenstein, using themes of rejection, discovery and love to draw parallels between the life of the character and how she is perceived.
This performance provides a new way of looking at the process of joining a society, fitting in, moulding yourself to a new way of working whilst importantly retaining your own cultural authenticity and heritage. The exposed nature of the setting and vulnerability of the actor adds to the importance of what she’s saying, giving a performance that is both memorable and brave. A great opening night.
The performance runs again between now and the 27th at the Lantern and tickets are available at Brighton Fringe – £12/£8.
Performance Dates:
May 22nd, 5:00 pm
May 23rd, 2:00 pm
May 26th, 5:00 pm
May 27th, 7:00 pm
Writer: Petunia “Langyue” Hu
Performer: Lan Jiang
