Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Red Lantern
Tagtick Productions
Genre: International, Storytelling
Venue: theSpace @Niddry Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Set against the background of the Asian Blitz (1938 to 1944), when the Japanese Empire carried out a sustained 6 year aerial attack on the Chinese city of Chongqing, this fable explores how a young boy can bring hope to a hopeless people through the acquisition of extraordinary powers.
Review
It is 1941 and the city of Chongqing has been subjected to a sustained bombing campaign for 40 months. Guang is a child, his parents part of the team responsible for raising the alarm in air raids by releasing red lanterns. Traditionally flown at times of celebration and family reunion, now the lanterns symbolise terror and loss of hope.
One day after the bombs have fallen Guang follows a strange ticking sound which no one else can hear. It is an unexploded bomb and Guang can speak to it. With his extraordinary gift and quick thinking he stops more deaths; news of his abilities spread and he is hailed as the city’s little hero. The Red Lantern is a fairy tale about a child with seemingly magical powers of communicating with inanimate objects and how his actions bring light in the darkness to this beleaguered city.
Written by Inserio Fan and Lymia Yumin Liang, this is a simple but beautiful solo show. Fan is also the performer, one minute a curious small boy, the next a hapless builder, then the bomb. Although it is performed in Chinese, Fan’s storytelling skill dismantles the language barrier for those who are not native speakers. There are sub-titles in English (although the performer must take care not to obscure the audience’s view). With the simplest of props and costume Fan describes the terror of the nightly raids for the children and although the story is set in a specific war it is an everyman (or in this case everychild) tale of the horrors of armed conflict and the tiny flickers of hope that sustain the human soul.
The spoken word is subtly underscored by an electronic soundscape and original compositions by Shawn Lo which complement Fan’s performance. The Red Lantern is produced by Tagtrick Productions and it received its Western premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026. It would be great to see the company back in the city in 2027.
