Book and Director: Sheldon Long

Musical director: Yezi Guo

This Camden Fringe show is presented as “work in progress” and that’s very much what it is, so it is appropriate to gloss over the patchy singing, the clunky scene changes and other shortcomings.

Inspired by Honglu Meng – a famous and influential Chinese novel by Cao Xuequin (1710-1765) – it tells the story of two sisters of aristocratic birth who are constrained by rigid social conventions. They take different paths, neither of which brings happiness. You San (Yiqian Shao – good) wants a love relationship unsanctioned by her family, which ends in betrayal. You Er (Yiting Jiang – fine singer)  stays at home but has a relationship with a family member and becomes pregnant. In many ways, it’s a feminist piece. These women are caged by tradition.

The music is odd. It connotes China with snatches of pentatonic scales and tam tams, but frequently resorts to thick, full orchestral texture as if we were in Turandot or something by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Although the women are, in general, better singers than the men, there is some pleasing duet work in harmony, usually with the two voices a major third apart.

The use of the Bridewell’s centre aisle as an extension of the playing space is effective because it’s nicely lit, and Yixuan Qiu’s traditional costume designs are a delight with lots of floaty silk in soft colours.

The best moment in the whole show comes three-quarters of the way through when a sinister turbaned figure (Sok-Ho Trinh) bursts out of a trap door, a cross between Abanazar and Caiaphas. He is the doctor, summoned to sort out You Er. We get off-beat rhythms and an arresting minor key song as he forces an abortifacient down her throat. It’s powerful, and her grief at the outcome is quite moving.

It is good (and unusual) to see  Bridewell Theatre fully sold out. Many of the audience are, inevitably, enthusiastic supporters of cast members, so there is a lot of supportive laughter simply because someone appears, and that gets quite irritating, especially when the same audience members can’t stop chattering amongst themselves.

While the storytelling could be stronger, Caged Sisters is a brave effort at fusion theatre, enjoyable in places, even in its present “in development” phase. It does not, however, need an interval to bulk out its length. It would work perfectly well as a 60-80 minute straight-through performance. There is, moreover, an over-reliance on voice-over.

Runs until 30 August 2025