REVIEW: Dear A - A Touching Musical Letter To The Past

In Dear A, Juniper Lai delivers a quiet and deeply felt performance that weaves personal memory, diaspora identity, and folk music into a gentle letter to the past, to a person, or perhaps to a part of herself. Structured around a repeating triptych, reading a letter, showing projection, and singing, each section builds an emotional atmosphere that is both intimate and sincere.

Her voice is the emotional anchor of the show. With a tone that is tender, textured, and unmistakably her own, Juniper reinterprets folk songs from across languages and generations, 500 Miles, До свидания, Baby, 南方姑娘, into something haunting and new. These renditions are not nostalgic replicas but reinterpretations marked by distance and reflection. Her delivery feels lived-in, shaped by time and memory, each song carrying the weight of multiple journeys.

While much of Dear A is drawn from personal experience, it consistently gestures outward. Moments such as the mention of Urumqi during the pandemic or quiet references to Palestine ground her memories in larger, shared contexts. Her mother’s image appears in projection, at 24, the same age Juniper is now, and suddenly the performance becomes a subtle dialogue across generations. This connection between personal and political, past and present, gives the piece a sense of quiet urgency.

Cultural markers such as Stephen Chow films and All’s Well, Ends Well also surface, offering a language of belonging for those shaped by Cantonese media and the shared humour of a particular region. These references are not overexplained. They are there for those who understand them, a gesture of care to those who carry the same cultural code.

The structure of the piece, with its steady rhythm of letter, projection, and song, creates a ritual-like experience, anchoring the emotional arc. That said, across the full running time, this unchanging format can occasionally feel limiting. The performance might benefit from more variation in pacing or narrative approach, to offer the audience new ways into the emotional journey.

Still, Dear A is a moving and promising work. It opens up a space where songs become vessels for memory, where personal stories gently brush against the collective, and where the voice of one young artist echoes far beyond the letter she never sent.

★★★1/2

This show is currently performing at Theatre 2 at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh Fringe. For more information, please visit: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/dear-a

Credits

Performer: Juniper Lai
Lighting Designer: Ellie Zhao
Technical Manager: Jingwen Ni
Producer: Lok Pui
Photographer: Chiwai Cheung & Wendy Dong

©️Photo by Chiwai Cheung