Li Zhuolang on Superheroes, Cultural Identity, and Making Her Own Rules at Camden Fringe

On the surface, her show is about capes and powers — but beneath that, it’s a sharp and personal piece centred on a Chinese woman wrestling with the divide between how she understands herself and how the world expects her to be. “It’s about superheroes,” she explains — but that’s just the entry point into something much more layered.

Zhuolang’s path into performance hasn’t been linear. Though she dreamed of being an actor from a young age, she initially dismissed the idea as impractical. After a detour into another career entirely, she eventually found her way back to the stage, enrolling in the MFA Acting programme at East 15. It was there that she began creating her own work — work that draws deeply from personal experience, shaped as much by global pop culture as by questions of identity and cultural translation.

She cites Hollywood as a major early influence. As a child, she was captivated by the escapism of film — by stories that transported her to a world where everyone seemed to live in New York, surf in California, and operate entirely outside the realities she knew. Only later, after leaving mainland China, did she fully realise how simplistically others viewed her in return. That revelation — the tension between self-image and external perception — has become central to her artistic voice.

Though her love of big-screen superheroes remains strong, Zhuolang has been deeply impacted by her immersion in the London theatre scene. It’s here that she’s developed a taste for more experimental work, with festivals like Camden Fringe offering a platform to blend genre with deeper commentary. “You should really give it a try,” she says, noting that this year’s programme is particularly exciting.

Outside the rehearsal room, Zhuolang is unashamedly nerdy — a regular at Forbidden Planet, the legendary comic book and cult media shop in central London. It’s a fitting hangout for someone whose artistic inspirations include fantasy, sci-fi, and larger-than-life stories with something real to say underneath the spectacle.

In another life, she might have ended up in a completely different profession. “If I could have done math, I would have done math,” she jokes. “I’d have taken up an IT job or become an accountant.” But instead of spreadsheets, she’s now shaping stories that reflect a generation navigating heritage, hybridity, and who gets to define the narrative.

When asked what she’s excited to see at the festival, Zhuolang doesn’t hesitate: Caged Sisters, a musical based on The Story of the Stone, one of her favourite works of Chinese literature. “I can’t wait,” she says — a reminder that even for creators, being part of the audience is still part of the magic.

With humour, clarity, and a sharp eye on both the personal and the political, Li Zhuolang’s work feels right at home at Camden Fringe — a place where boundaries are meant to be challenged, and new heroes take the stage.