Recalling Mother
Esplanade Theatre Studios, 15 to 18 September 2022
Direction & Script: Claire Wong & Noorlinah Mohammed.
Set: Johanna Pan. Lighting & Multimedia: Elizabeth Mak.
Sound: Shah Tahir. Photography: Joe Nair.
“Throughout the play, Elizabeth Mak’s multimedia plays a key role in elevating and bringing out Recalling Mother’s key themes. Footage of past productions of Recalling Mother is projected onto screens and frames curtained with frayed black thread, juxtaposing the Claire and Noorlinah of years gone by, with the Claire and Noorlinah of the present day.”
By the time I started working on Recalling Mother: Her Lines, My Lines, Claire and Noorlinah had already performed versions of what they call this “living play” 6 times prior, in 2006, 2009, 2015, twice in 2016, and in 2017. This time, they wanted to incorporate their past selves into the show. We began our design discussions talking about what it meant for memory to fragment, and how our understanding of ourselves and our mothers evolve over time. Stacking multiple bodies in space and compressing time this manner lent a haunting quality to the production, even as the digital artifacts juxtaposed against the now-older performers became a commentary on mortality and the fragility of life.
Subtitles became part of the stage composition, weaving Malay and Cantonese throughout the show in the same way that Noorlinah and Claire have navigated their linguistic challenges with their non-English-speaking mothers.
For me, a Singaporean who spent over a decade abroad, with her own Cantonese-speaking grandmother, this production felt deeply personal. Claire and Noorlinah’s candour and willingness to delve unflinchingly into their relationships with their mothers touched a cord within many women in the audience. Thanks to the show, I also gained vocabulary to talk to my Popo about the work that I do, with my ‘pin ket’ (playwright) and my ‘do yen’ (director).