(Event recording coming soon) A Creative Conversation with Fiona Zhu and Keyuan Zhang, Creators of the Portrait Musical Herstory in History
Event Information
26 July 2026, online (Finished)
Guest speakers: Fiona Zhu and Keyuan Zhang
Who should watch:
- Audiences interested in women in history, character-making and contemporary storytelling
- Theatre makers exploring musical theatre, solo performance or independent production
- Early-career artists navigating side jobs, uncertainty, identity and the pressures of making theatre
- Students and practitioners interested in Chinese theatrical languages and cross-cultural performance
Guest Musical
Replay Guide
Timings are approximate:
- 01:30–13:18 | Different historical portraits of Princess Zhao, the origins of the project and its interwoven historical and contemporary narratives
- 13:18–21:38 | The missing fifteen years, the meaning of choice and the early-career artist’s “odyssey period”
- 21:38–33:13 | The pressures of writing, directing, performing and producing—and how creative disagreement becomes a resource
- 33:13–41:09 | The idea of a “portrait musical” and how solo performance can connect an individual life with wider experience
- 41:09–52:03 | Chinese theatrical languages, UK theatre training and cross-cultural performance-making
- 52:03–59:04 | Audience questions on history and the present, the image of rain, and how to communicate stories across cultural contexts.
About This Conversation
Princess Zhao is not simply a woman forgotten by history. She has been repeatedly written, yet rarely allowed to explain her own motivations, choices or inner life.
The Records of the Grand Historian, the Zuo Commentary and later theatrical versions leave behind strikingly different portraits. She can appear as a tragic mother protecting the Zhao lineage, or as a woman with desire, judgement and political agency. Herstory in History does not select one of these accounts as the definitive truth. Instead, it places them beside one another, revealing how historical figures are continually reshaped by the needs and values of different storytellers.
The musical follows two interwoven narratives. One traces a Princess Zhao whose life has been compressed by the historical record. The other follows a contemporary performer negotiating work, identity, survival and choices made under pressure. Across time, the two women begin to reflect one another, forming a double portrait that remains open, contradictory and unfinished.
The conversation also moves beyond the archive and into the working lives of theatre makers. Fiona and Keyuan discuss the early-career artist’s “odyssey period”: side jobs, unstable routines, displacement and the distance between earning a living and feeling close to one’s craft. They also speak about the multiple pressures behind a solo musical, productive disagreement within a creative partnership, and the different perspectives brought by performers, directors, writers and producers.
What happens when Chinese history and traditional theatrical elements enter a contemporary musical made in Britain? How much should artists explain, and how much should they leave to the audience? Fiona and Keyuan argue that cross-cultural work need not erase difference or underestimate its viewers. Specific Chinese theatrical languages and recognisable human experiences can coexist on the same stage.
The conversation does not offer a final, authoritative portrait of Princess Zhao or a simple answer to the choices people face today. Instead, it returns time, contradiction and change to a life compressed by the archive—and leaves the audience free to form its own judgement.
Meet the Guest Speakers
Fiona Zhu
Musical Theatre Actress, Director and Producer
Fiona Zhu is a Chinese musical theatre actress, director and vocal coach, and a member of the China Theatre Association and the China Musical Theatre Association. She holds an MA in Music Performance from Shanghai Normal University and is currently pursuing an MA in Musical Theatre at the Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey.
She has taught at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and the Communication University of China, and was named Most Influential Actress of the Year at the 2024 China Musical Theatre Association Annual Gala. Her stage credits include The Lion King, Next to Normal, Lizzie, The Orphan of Zhao and The Message.
Keyuan Zhang
Playwright, Director and Interdisciplinary Performance Maker
Keyuan Zhang is a playwright, director and interdisciplinary performance maker whose work explores individual narratives shaped by changing times.
His directing work infinitum received the Lorenzo il Magnifico Award at the 2025 Florence Biennale, and Picasso 2033, which he wrote and directed, won Best Drama at the Asian Arts Award of the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is a fully funded PhD researcher in Drama at Queen Mary University of London, having previously trained in acting at Shanghai Normal University, in directing at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and at King’s College London.
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History skipped fifteen years of Princess Zhao’s life. Whose missing years should theatre revisit next?
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