Li Jin Hao @ Pleasance Courtyard

Falling From a Moon is Li Jin Hao’s much anticipated return to the Fringe, after his much-praised 2024 debut won a Best Newcomer award nomination.  It was a remarkably assured and stylish debut, announcing the arrival of a major talent and a very specific, droll style – softly spoken surrealism with an intriguing edge. His follow-up does not disappoint.

The vivid pull of childhood and youth apparent in Swimming in a Submarine clarifies here into an outright yearning, and a potent nostalgia that makes the present dim in comparison. For Li, the past – like an air-conditioned cinema – is a more comfortable place than the present.

It's a sense of disconnect amplified by his out-of-placeness, living in London and dreaming of Singapore and his birthplace, China. Detached, perhaps, but fruitful, and it makes for a beautifully tilted perspective with fanciful trains of thought and absurd wordplay. He counts sheep to sleep, then shepherdesses, now he can't sleep: he has a farm, responsibilities. The tilt is literal, his flat isn't flat – Li is indignant at uneven habitations and the suffering of London's people, and still 'the King does nothing'. His approach is whimsical, but always precise.

Legends, dreams and colours (and the rather magical set design) all braid together into an otherwordly atmosphere, with the sense here of territory that is rather untouched and rare. Full coherence shimmers just out of view; a thwarting of complete satisfaction that is perhaps fitting given Li’s contempt for easy wins and playing to the back row.

---

Li Jin Hao: Falling From A Moon, Pleasance Courtyard (Above), until 30 Aug, 8pm, £13.50-16.50