Cardstock: A Lyrical New Play About Fanfiction, Female Desire and Being Heard - Premiering at Brighton Fringe 2025

Seagull Sisters, a new Asian female-led theatre collective, brings their debut production Cardstock to Brighton Fringe 2025.

NEWS

Zoe Xie

5/4/20253 min read

Seagull Sisters, a new Asian female-led theatre collective, brings their debut production Cardstock to Brighton Fringe 2025.

The play explores the blurred lines between fiction and testimony through the story of a writer and a reader entangled in a viral post. Set between flashbacks, online fandom, and legal questioning, Cardstock unfolds a poetic and unsettling portrait of authorship, internet subcultures, and what it means to be heard.

Two women. One story. A thousand folds between them.

Mae is an erotica writer at the peak of her online fame. Lily is a reader who once found solace in Mae’s words, until a familiar narrative triggers something real. Haunted by childhood sexual abuse, Lily finds a strange sense of control through posting malicious comments online. When she crosses paths with Mae, an unexpected online friendship begins. Mae encourages Lily to seek justice, but after consulting a lawyer, Lily becomes discouraged by the legal system’s limitations.

In desperation, Lily anonymously posts her accusation online. It gains little attention, until Mae attaches a link to it at the end of one of her sexually explicit chapters. The post quickly goes viral and climbs the trending list. Was it just fiction, or someone else’s truth?

As algorithms surface the post and the authorities step in, Mae faces legal jeopardy. Meanwhile, Lily decides to formally report the abuse she had once buried, recounting every brutal detail in a final bid for justice. What remains between them is not a blank page, but a worn one - still being written.

Cardstock is a work about internet fringe cultures, gender identity, and female desire. Drawing on motifs of discarded manuscripts, folded posters, and “papercut” characters, it traces how two women attempt to rewrite a single piece of cardstock already marked by memory and myth. The production also touches on fanfiction culture, where anonymity, intimacy, and authorship are constantly shifting. It also unfolds a sharp, lyrical investigation into authorship, fantasy, consent, and the unintended weight of being heard.

Cardstock is the debut production by Seagull Sisters, an Asian female-led company formed by emerging theatre makers from China and Malaysia. The team includes playwright Qianyue Ang (University of Edinburgh), director/dramaturg Xiaoyao Luo (RADA), movement director Sook Kuan Tang (RADA), and designer Chaoying Lin (RCSSD). Producers Yuqi Wen (Goldsmiths) and Dina Nan (RCSSD) bring extensive experience from both the UK and Chinese theatre sectors.

The production features original handpan music performed live by actor Jaiden Xiu, and draws on visual motifs of origami and folding to mirror the emotional and narrative layers of the piece.

"Pressed. Wrinkled. Folded. But standing. " These words echo the heart of Cardstock, a work that honours the strength and resilience of women, especially within digital spaces where they are so often dismissed, misread, or silenced. As the creative team puts it, one saying became their compass: "The base colour of Chinese women is resilience."