“I don’t even know how to be Chinese,” aches Jen (Keira Loughran), a Queen’s university student struggling to come to terms with growing up in an unnatural environment.

Not exactly the most original premise for a new work but thanks to the endless amount of ebullient directorial cues from Marion de Vries, Little Dragon manages to find the perfect balance of a comical quest for identity and striking kinesics of martial arts.

Of this alone, playwright Keira Loughran has taken a theatrical presentation to a summit audiences have been begging for.

Surrounding Jen while she embarks on a journey to discover who her father was are a ragtag crew of school chums whereby prevailing relationship friction of such a demographic is highly recognizable.

All of which is embodied by perpetual body contact from start to finish. It’s physically poetic and gracefully buoyant.

The rousing efforts of Michelle Polak, Nina Aquino, Angela Beshara, Richard Lee, and Julian Doucet is pivotal to the piece. Thankfully, the cast doesn’t take the show any more seriously than it should while giving the play’s heroine the kind of breathing room she needs tell the story.

So it comes as no surprise that Keira Loughran would have the deepest connection to the script. It’s evident throughout her meanderings and without it the play would take on frightfully disposable characteristics.

The punch that Little Dragon lacks is depth. There are moments that suggest superior conflict and elated romance are on the way yet neither element transpire—or transpire to the degree that they should. In the end, Jen’s irrefutable character arch is what delivers the goods.

An impressive debut from a first time playwright, Little Dragon leaves you wanting more.