Taste Like Egg Fried Rice offers a poignant exploration of the Chinese international student experience in London, using food as both metaphor and medium. At its heart is Annie, a young woman caught between her law degree and restaurant shifts, pressured by her parents across the ocean while navigating tensions with her girlfriend Clara and witnessing her flatmate Lin’s struggles with identity. Set across a shared apartment, an Italian restaurant, and video calls, the production captures the contradictions of intimacy, family expectation, and uncertain futures. Egg fried rice—both a family recipe and a recurring point of conflict—emerges as a symbol of cultural memory, generational tension, and the complexity of love.
By framing its narrative through food, the play transforms the Chinese idiom “food is the first necessity of the people” into a cross-cultural theatrical experiment. Real-time projection and live filming integrate the language of social media into the stage, mirroring how contemporary youth move between online personas and offline realities. The visual juxtaposition of fried rice with pizza and pasta highlights cultural difference while exposing the deeper tensions of belonging and identity. Performed at London’s Bridewell Centre from 20 to 22 August 2025, the play drew a significant proportion of local audiences. Many remarked during talkbacks, “This is my life,” underscoring both the authenticity and universality of the experience.
As Annie, Mary Emma He delivers a performance of striking sincerity and nuance. Informed by her own experiences, she brings layered vulnerability and quiet strength, her physicality illuminating both fragility and resilience. Many in the audience described her presence as “a mirror of my own life,” testifying to the role’s uncanny resonance. In the fourth scene’s monologue on career choices, however, her emotional release felt overly direct, with a pacing that risked diminishing its potential impact; allowing more silence and breath might have given the role even greater depth. Beyond her performance, Mary also initiated and produced the work, shaping its promotion and introducing the giant “Egg Fried Rice” prop that amplified its symbolism. What remains to be seen is how the production can extend its reach to broader audiences while preserving its cultural specificity and artistic integrity.
Director Keyuan Zhang employs a bold formal approach, blending live performance with projected imagery in the style of livestreams and video diaries. This innovative use of multimedia reflects the grammar of digital life, situating the characters within the fractured realities of contemporary communication. A tighter calibration between image and live action could enhance the production’s coherence and strengthen its immersive qualities.
As Lin, Wenqi Yu offers a deeply affecting performance. His portrayal of vulnerability—particularly in moments of self-confession and hesitation—brings raw emotional weight to the stage. His subtle shifts in gesture and expression reveal the character’s inner solitude with moving honesty. Yu also demonstrates versatility, providing comic relief in the closing moments with a playful cameo as a new flatmate. Greater attention to vocal clarity and pacing would elevate these moments further, but his performance affirms his promise as a compelling young actor with emotional depth and range.
Designer Mingyue Hu grounds the production with scenography that is both concrete and symbolic. The fluid transformation between a cramped London apartment and a bustling Italian restaurant reflects the characters’ shifting identities and cultural collisions. Food objects recur as visual motifs, reinforcing their thematic centrality. While some scene transitions risk slowing the dramatic rhythm, the design’s balance of realism and theatricality lends warmth and resonance.
Leah Nimitmongkol ’s costume design effectively delineates character: Annie’s dual student-and-server attire, Clara’s influencer-inflected wardrobe, and Lin’s polished exterior all anchor the audience’s understanding of social and cultural contrasts. The choices are precise and communicative, though occasionally their symbolism verges on overstatement. A more nuanced approach could allow for greater ambiguity and interpretive space.
As lead producer, Sijia Li demonstrates strong organisational and managerial ability, ensuring the production’s seamless delivery in London. Her meticulous coordination allowed the creative team to focus on artistic development, while her clear communication with the venue ensured smooth execution. Still, staging such a forward-looking, experimental work in the relatively conventional Bridewell Centre somewhat limited its intended immersive impact. Future iterations might benefit from a more flexible or unconventional space to fully release the work’s sensory and experimental potential
Ultimately, Taste Like Egg Fried Rice is more than a play about food. It is a meditation on identity, migration, and the pressures of becoming. Through its cross-cultural lens, it speaks to the disorientation and resilience of a generation straddling multiple worlds. The audience’s enthusiastic response, balancing laughter, tears, and recognition, demonstrates the work’s ability to capture universal emotions within specific cultural contexts. While certain moments risk reinforcing cultural clichés, the honesty and immediacy of the storytelling ensure that the play resonates powerfully. In its fusion of stage and screen, intimacy and distance, East and West, Taste Like Egg Fried Rice asserts itself as an ambitious and courageous contribution to contemporary theatre—and a significant step in articulating Chinese diasporic narratives on the international stage.
This review was written by Peter Vickers, a theatre critic, writer and director trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His works have been staged at the Edinburgh and Paris Fringe Festivals, with films selected for the Cannes Film Festival and plays commissioned by BBC Radio 4.
