Geography: Americas > Northern America > Canada
Year: 2026
Produced by: Presented by Liquid on Stage as a Yu Theatre Toronto production; Ottawa Fringe Festival; La Nouvelle Scène Studio B, Ottawa
Creative Team: Written by Irene Fan Yi; directed by Daisy Mengru Jia; performed by Charlee Ning 宁唯而; stage managed by Ziqi 比卡 Liu; production support by Noel Pendawa
Synopsis: I Have a Dream in Chinese is a bilingual Mandarin-English solo performance following a Chinese immigrant, Ivy, also known as Song travelling from Hong Kong to Vancouver while negotiating two names, two languages and two homes. Centred on the fractured identities of Song and Ivy, the piece explores migration during and after COVID-19 through border crossing, workplace erasure, microaggressions, state surveillance and the grief of leaving a city behind. Its aesthetic combines poetic monologue, bureaucratic absurdity, projection and dreamlike sound. The production deftly moves between everyday Canadian situations and moments of interrogation and family contact. Belonging and cultural assimilation is unstable and shaky, rather than achieved immediately through arrival. By staging migration as an external journey, the show asks how a racialized migrant begins again when Canada still demands incessant proof of identity.
Source: Yu Theatre Toronto, official production listing: https://www.yutheatre.com/programming/touring-and-festivals/i-have-a-dream-in-chinese Ottawa Fringe Festival, show listing: https://ottawafringe.com/show/i-have-a-dream-in-chinese/ Showpass, Ottawa Fringe ticketing page: https://www.showpass.com/i-have-a-dream-in-chinese/ Ruby Slippers Theatre, Advance Theatre Festival development listing: https://www.rubyslippers.ca/advance-theatre-festival-2026/ Burnt Out Reviews, Ottawa Fringe 2026 Opening Weekend review: https://burntoutreviews.com/2026/06/22/ottawa-fringe-2026-opening-weekend/ US