Who the hell is Robert Wayne? Etcetera Theatre
Our Camden Fringe 2025 Interview series is up and running, with fresh interviews coming every day of July. We set ourselves a target of 100, so hang around to see if we make it. You can find all our Camden Fringe interviews here.
Next up is Li Zhuolang, telling us all about the intriguingly named Who the hell is Robert Wayne? Li brings their show to Etcetera Theatre as part of this year’s festival, with five performances between 28 July and 13 August. You can find out exact dates and times here.
What can audiences expect from the show?
A behind the curtain look at the “growing up in northwestern China and living in London” experience. How women of color reconcile their reality with the way they are perceived. Comedies and superheroes!
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
Yes. The show will debut at Camden Fringe this year.
What was your inspiration behind the show?
A lot of it has been my own life experience, but it is also heavily influenced by western pop-cultures, especially comic books and other superhero media.
How long have you been working on the play?
Overall the concept of this play has been brewing for four years. There is a seven-minute monologue version, a two-hour ensemble play version, and a standup comedy version out there. I rewrote everything as a one-hour solo-show for the Camden Fringe, in about two months.
Is this version how you originally envisioned it or has it changed drastically since you first put pen to paper?
Yes. This version has seen many changes and is the first one that will be seen by an audience after my seven-minute monologue. I had gone through multiple formats and decided this would be the one most faithful and appropriate to the theme.
What is it that drew you to this role?
This is a solo-show that I’m writing and producing and acting in. However, if I were an actor auditioning for this role, I would say that how deeply specific the character is. It is as far away from the “Asian women” stereotype as possible and focuses on a very particular individual from a very particular region. Her ethnic background is not the sole drive behind the story, yet it is still very rooted in the character.
What is it about your character that you most enjoy?
Her refusal to be self-aware and her humor. Also getting to do Chinese dialects.
How challenging has this role been for you?
It’s too close to home on purpose, so that’s challenging in two ways. One is making the character distinguishably and dramatically different from myself, and another is to not let my own opinions and feelings colour too much of the more vulnerable moments, as the character is going through things in the moment, and might not have as distilled and processed thoughts as I do.
This is a solo-show produced by myself, but I do want to say that it made me look at myself and how I feel about my cultural heritage and how I want to present myself, a bit more differently. Throughout the course of producing this show I became slightly more resilient to xenophobia, in a sense, so there is that!
Are there any plans for what comes next after the show has finished its run – for you or the show?
Yes. I want to fulfill my vision of making this an ensemble play. This solo-show is more her reacting to what is happening, and I think it would be very interesting to witness the character go through similar experiences, but also see what’s happening to her actually happen live.
If your show had a soundtrack what songs would definitely be on it?
Run Boy Run. We both feel like we are being hunted for sports.
If you could perform this show anywhere in the world where would it be?
America for sure. So much of my pop-culture knowledge base is shaped by American folktales. They gave me this accent (unfortunately), and I want to take the end results to where it all started.
What words of advice/encouragement would you give anyone thinking about doing Camden Fringe next year?
IT!! IS!!! NOT AS HARD!!! AS YOU THINK IT WILL BE!!!!!
Many thanks to Li for telling us about Who the hell is Robert Wayne? The show plays for six performanecs at Etcetera Theatre from Monday 28 July to Wednesday 13 August.
