This upcoming Merdeka weekend, why not spend it in introspection? The Secret Drawer of a Father Who Was a Leftist and the Plea Letter of a Political-Detainee Father by the Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre has this as their thesis statement: When history happens, no-one is spared.
Written and performed by Ling Tang and Tiong Wooi, both draw their work from deeply personal yet historical family memories. One, a secret drawer belonging to a father who tells his daughter it “cannot be opened” – is a source of both fear and excitement for one child. The other, an archive consisting of nearly 60 official documents and application letters, ranging from a detention order from 1964 and a banishment order from 1967 to countless applications, rejections, and temporary entry permits spanning more than two decades – remains a matter of unconcern for the child. Until she is forced to open it.
Through narrative, archival material and re-enactments of plays, poems and songs the two women explore these hidden histories, tracing how their fathers’ backgrounds flowed into their daughters’ bodies and bloodlines, contorting and influencing their own identities and aspirations as children – and as artists. The play is also performed in Cantonese, Mandarin and English with subtitles in English, Malay & Chinese.
The play is held in the newly opened Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre inside Sunway Square Mall. Tickets are available here from RM45 onward.
