Herstory in History is a new original one-woman musical which takes the ancient story of Princess Zhao (of Voltaire’s tragedy for most Westerners) and aligns it with the personal story of a young actress who plays the character, but finds parallels with her own life. The piece is very engaging, as it leverages Western Musical Theatre structure in combination with traditional Chinese theatrical techniques. This doesn’t work 100% however is highly compelling in the moments it does, particularly when it leverages video closeups of the performer’s face in key moments.
The design is simplistic, and at times it could benefit from not overlapping as much, to ensure that everything is visible; in particular at times the shadows on the screen were really useful to the story, but at others they were distracting.
The performer (and co-writer) Fiona Zhu is outstanding throughout. Her performance is incredibly strong and nuanced; rarely did I feel like i was watching a performance in a language I do not speak, her expression and delivery conveyed meaning so succinctly I at times forgot to look at the surtitles.