REVIEW: Cinderella and Frankenstein’s Monster are Dead, The Beachcombers, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

What shapes identity? Is it where we grow up? Is it who we live with? Is it our education? Is it the art we engage with? Is it all of these, or none?

These questions fuel director Petunia Hu’s one-person play Cinderella and Frankenstein’s Monster are Dead. It follows a Chinese exchange student in the US grappling with both auditioning for her school’s production of ‘Cinderella’, while staying connected to her heritage.

Hu’s character reads Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, feeling a kinship with the creature searching for his place in the world; passages from the classic as well as Mandarin folk songs blend with monologue in this affecting, literary and thought-provoking piece.

The narrator’s host family in Tampa, Florida includes a girl her age, Lydia. Lydia is a quarter Asian but passes for white and begins the show seeking to explore her own background. Another central character is Gina, Lydia’s grandmother. Gina is also from China; she married an American to have a better chance at citizenship and advises Zhaolan about her own journey navigating her relationship to herself and others in a new country. In the present, Zhaolan navigates giving her own kind of performance amidst her competitive peers in the show, at times blurring the lines between fictional characters — both royal and monstrous — and her own inner thoughts.

Lan Jiang gives a dynamic, inviting performance, aptly directed by Hu who makes use of the small stage with varied blocking and movement that never feels busy or stretched. Books are used as props and set pieces and their arrangement — carefully stacked or strewn about — often mirrors Zhaolan’s emotional state, emphasizing her connection to these texts. The textured sound design by Lily Rose Barron almost acts as a set piece of its own; layers of running water, pen scratching on paper, and more build to create evocative soundscapes that frame the scenes well. This subtly shifting stagecraft paired with Jiang’s ability to shift from character to character seamlessly creates some genuinely moving moments.

Cinderella and Frankenstein’s Monster are Dead is a beautifully rendered story that anyone who’s ever wondered who they are — and/or done high school theatre — will surely relate to.

Recommended drink: A warm cup of green tea

Catch Cinderella and Frankenstein’s Monster are Dead at Studio at TheSpace Triplex between 5-30 August at 13:05 (45 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.