REVIEW: RE:NAME Camden Fringe, at Etcetera Theatre, 1 – 3 August 2024

‘a young woman reaching for a self she is on the path to finding’ ★★

Disclaimer, this production is part of Yuhe Tian's drama therapy certificate. The night I saw Re:name, rain and thunder mirrored the show's opening track. The stage was bare except for an erect silk screen and white paper sheets on the floor. From behind the screen Yuhe Tian opened with the story of her naming, her grandfather's naming her 'crane in the rain': “like that crane, your name will be heard far and wide”. The performance meditates on the shedding of the performer's duty to “bring glory to your ancestors, and make your family proud” (mediated via her controlling father's very loud voice-over), to owning the meaning and sound of her name, and finding pride in herself.

Yuhe Tian plays herself, a young woman with a dream of freedom, a visceral need to cut ties to patriarchal traditions, and a longing for acceptance by her father (her mother, tellingly doesn't figure). To overcome the anxiety born of contradictory desires she has to accept herself, and learn that she is “good enough”. A name change from the Yuhe Tian to Tina marks Tian's foray into “forgetting everything”. As Tina, Yuhe Tian finds love, and discovers that her inherited ideals of modesty aren't the benchmark of womanhood in London, her new home. “I feel like a bird that cannot land, but I love my freedom” Tian says, and that describes the performance well – a young woman reaching for a self she is on the path to finding.  The show concludes, rather abruptly, when Yuhe Tian re-claims her name, accepting her grandfather's gift, but as an audience member (not friend or family, as most of the room were) I was left wondering what to do with her confessions.

When a personal journey is told with detail, verve, wit and craft enough to make it general, you can't fail to entertain an audience. This was not Tian's goal – the show was created to share her own struggles with people she knows, winning a “I am proud of you now!” live shout from her father at the show's end, and her friends' applause.

Director/Writer/Performer: Yuhe Tian (@arts_yuhe)

Dramaturg: Bessie Wang (@bessiewang_)

Producer: Chenxing Liu (@willow_dragon_star)

Sound/Lighting: Ray Tao (@yar_0041)

Set Designer: Cheuk Yan Agnes Yeung (@agnesc.y)

Voice Cast:

Grandfather: Chunsheng Zhang

Strangers: Jathursa Uthayakumar, Theo Duddridge, Bessie Wang

Lover: Baris Sencan