This will be one of the more unusual shows you’ll see this Fringe. Over the course of around twenty-five minutes, Sean Wai Keung will make you and nine other people, your very own fortune cookie. If, like this reviewer, you’ve never given a lot of thought to how fortune cookies are made, the process alone is interesting enough. But alongside, Wai Keung delivers A History of Fortune Cookies – and a very potted history of himself.

Like so much of the so-called Chinese food available in our takeaways, turns out the fortune cookie also has an appropriated relationship with China. The Second World War saw a reinvention in the cookie’s backstory. Wonton Food Inc got involved and the cookie’s story changed again. Wai Keung compares his own history – a mix of ethnicities and a mix of priorities – to that of the cookie, noting poignantly, “when you’re a mix, you’re wrong everywhere”.

We learn a little of his family’s history and what that means for Wai Keung now. We learn that racism is alive and thriving, whether you’re from a visibly different ethnicity or whether you’re not. But like the defiantly optimistic fortune cookie, Wai Keung continues to hope that he’ll find his place to fit in.

There are lots of ideas jostling for airtime in the short script. Tradition, family, food, culture, race and racism are all stirred into the mix before they’re popped into the oven and baked. There’s something in here about creating your own fortune. There’s something about how hard it is to escape a past you have no hand in. A few more minutes to tease out our takeaway fortune might have made for a more satisfying piece of theatre. But nevertheless, this is a snappy sweet potted history with a tiny audience that you’ll be lucky to catch.

A History of Fortune Cookies is at Summerhall – Former Women’s Locker Room