Recalling Motherby Checkpoint Theatre

Written, performed and directed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed

24 – 27 Mar 2016, Thu – Sun24 – 26 Mar, 8pm26 & 27 Mar, 3pm

Esplanade Theatre Studio

A production by Checkpoint Theatre in collaboration with Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

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Recalling the past can sometimes be a strange affair. It is often said that we are the sum of our memories, yet there are also moments when they betray us. Shaped by our emotions and experiences, our memories continue to multiply as we grow older. Some inevitably get lost along the way while others start to fade like faint visions flickering in the dark.

In bridging what is gone with what remains, the only way to preserve our memories is by sharing our knowledge and stories with others. Theatre allows us to excavate and reconstruct them, reflect on the past together as we learn more about one another and rediscover ourselves.

The Fiction of Memory is not just a recollection of stories, identities and time. It is an exercise in recreating shared memories as narratives—even though it is not always accurate. Here, life seeps into the mix, and as it does, it compels us to think about the future. In this space where imagination and reality meet, we explore what we could have been or can be.

So thank you for being here, where memory blurs into fiction and life into memory, where we retreat into our collective consciousness, if only for a moment.

Fezhah MaznanLead Programmerand The Studios team

The Fiction of Memory

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We didn’t set out to revisit this work time and again. We didn’t plan this 10 years ago. But I realise how fortunate it is that we have been able to. How fortunate we are to have another 10 years of being with our mothers. How fortunate that Noorlinah and I continue to have a personal and professional bond.  

Recalling Mother is perhaps the first and only theatrical project that I’ve worked on, when revisited, is always treated as a new creation. It marks and tracks the ongoing relationship between mothers and daughters but also an ongoing relationship between artists, their subjects and theatre. Every new moment we discover informs the older moments, making Cik Bee Bee and Madam Wong more vivid for us and hopefully for the audience as well. 

For this 2016 production, Claire and I have decided to include a post-show talkback for every performance. The audience has an integral part in this process as the style and approach of the performance offer ways in which the audience can participate, not overtly, but through silent reflection. We hope that the talkbacks will open the space for conversations about mothers to continue long after our stories end. 

Like Claire, I thank all of you for being here. Most importantly, our creations these past 10 years would not have been possible without the unconditional love of both our mothers, Madam Wong and Cik Bee Bee (a.k.a Mak Sen). They may not have watched the different iterations of Recalling Mother, but they have always helped shape each production with their presence. Thank you.

Claire’s MessageEvery time we have come back to this piece, the memories of our mums as well as the present realities of our relationships with them, what we see changes: some things are sharper, some things have discoloured, some things look different this time, some things that have always been there are noticed for the first time. 

People who have seen previous editions of the work often want to talk to us about their own fathers, mothers, or grandparents. That has been a real privilege – to have our conversations spark and inspire these other conversations. I hope that you too are similarly inspired. Thank you for joining us and for being here.  And thank you to my mum, Madam Wong Yoot Ho, for always being there for me and my siblings, for being the wonderfully complex, colourful and characterful mother that I am so lucky to have and love.

Noorlinah’s Message

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As long-time friends and fellow theatre artists, Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed would often meet and talk about their mothers and the complexities of living and not living with them. One mother is Cantonese-speaking and impetuous; the other speaks Malay and is quietly stubborn. Both are smart, sharp and strong. Both are wonderful cooks. 

SynopsisThe Recalling Mother project began in 2006 with Claire and Noorlinah examining and charting how their relationships with their respective mothers have evolved over the years. With each performance (in 2006, 2009, 2015, and now 2016), they revisit, update and develop further, their exploration of how the bond between parent and child changes. As they and their mothers grow older, the caretaker has now become the dependant. What happens when the body begins to age? What does love mean to a mind that is beginning to fade? And so, the conversations continue.

Poignant, moving and funny, Recalling Mother celebrates the joys and challenges of motherhood and daughterhood.

There were the familiar mother-daughter arguments: the generation gaps, the fights

... But trumping all these...was the unequivocal, overwhelming love ... Heartfelt performances and a tight script ... [this] will make you go home and hug your mother much harder.

— The Straits Times

Written, performed and directed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed

Set and lighting design by Petrina Dawn Tan

Costume design by Laichan

Produced by Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman

Production Coordinator Karanina Suryadinata

Stage Manager Mirabel Neo

Assistant Stage Manager Chantel Goh

Marketing and Publicity Support Jerusha Tan

Production Photography Joel Lim @ Calibre Pictures

Acknowledgements

Checkpoint Theatre would like to thank the

Esplanade team, Benjamin Ong, Lim Zhen Qin,

our fantastic Front-of-House team and all who have

contributed to this production.

Credits

Official Production Photographer

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Noorlinah Recipes in my Katong Convent exercise books. My baby pillow handmade by Cik Bee Bee!

From Her Hands

Claire Handicrafts by Madam Wong made more than 60 years ago. I carried the beaded handbag at my wedding!

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Petrina Dawn Tan Set and Lighting Designer

Petrina Dawn Tan trained in lighting design under LASALLE’s BA (Hons) Technical Theatre programme. She is a recipient of the Georgette Chen Scholarship (2009) and the NAC Arts Scholarship, Local (2010).

Her recent lighting design credits include Manifesto (The Necessary Stage and Drama Box), Caucasian Chalk Circle (Singapore Repertory Theatre), La Vie en Rose (Sing Theatre), In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) (LASALLE College of the Arts), The Tin Can People (NAFA English Theatre), Pigeons (Buds Theatre Company), The Way We Go (Checkpoint Theatre), Intermezzo (Singapore Dance Theatre/da:ns festival 2014), and Innamorati (Toy Factory). 

She was the associate lighting designer for The Nightingale (Singapore Repertory Theatre) and assistant lighting designer for RED (Blank Space Theatre Company), Cook a Pot of Curry (Wild Rice) and The Art of the Brick (MBS Art Science Museum). Petrina is happy and thankful for the opportunity to be working once again with the Checkpoint Theatre family.

Laichan Costume Designer

Laichan is a Singapore fashion designer who also designs costumes for theatre and film. His credits include The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (Checkpoint Theatre), Public Enemy (Wild Rice), Normal (Checkpoint Theatre), Atomic Jaya (Checkpoint

Theatre), Freud’s Last Session (Blank Space Theatre), and Dick Lee’s Fried Rice Paradise. He also designed for the SG50 movie 1965 and HBO Asia’s original production Grace. Laichan’s eponymous boutique is situated at Raffles Hotel.

Claire Wong Playwright, Performer, Director and Co-producer

Claire Wong is the co-founder, Joint Artistic Director and Producer of Checkpoint Theatre. Trained in both Asian and Western performing arts, Claire obtained her Master of Fine Arts (MFA, Theatre Arts) from Columbia University. She directs and acts for the stage and the camera.

As a theatre director, Claire recently directed Normal (2015) and For Better or for Worse (2013) by Faith Ng, Joel Tan’s The Way We Go (2014) and Huzir Sulaiman’s Occupation (2012). She co-directed Dream Country: a lost monologue, a dance-theatre production by 35 performers for the Singapore Arts Festival 2012. As an actress, Claire has performed in landmark Singapore productions and in international arts festivals (Edinburgh Fringe; Telstra Adelaide Arts Festival; Theater der Welt). She recently appeared in Checkpoint Theatre’s 2013 production of Atomic Jaya.

Noorlinah Mohamed Playwright, Performer and Director

Noorlinah Mohamed is an award-winning theatre actress, teaching artist, and creative producer of community and public arts engagement projects in Singapore. Since 1988, she has performed with various theatre companies across Asia, Europe, and the US.

As a teaching artist, she has a doctorate in arts education and now researches on Singapore-based arts education practices. She also undertakes artist residencies in schools, develops curriculum as well as professional development in arts pedagogy. Her other passion in community and public engagement sees her collaborating with various artists and organisations. Noorlinah is the Director of The O.P.E.N., the pre-festival of ideas and public engagement initiative of the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2014-2016. She is also a recipient of several awards, including the JCCI Singapore Foundation Cultural Award (2008) and the Women’s Weekly Women of Our Time Award (2005) for her work in the arts.

Biographies

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Who We Are Established in 2002, Checkpoint Theatre creates and presents original theatrical and multi-disciplinary work with strong writing, performance and direction. With honesty and humour, head and heart, we produce and develop vibrant and important contemporary Asian plays that connect with, challenge, and inspire both local and international audiences. We are the home of new Singapore playwriting and we nurture the next generation of Singapore theatre-makers.

What We Do • Wecreateandstagetheatricalandinter-disciplinary

work.• Wefocusonplaywritingindevelopingoriginal

Singapore plays.• Wementoremergingtheatre-makersthrough

workshops, internships and collaborations, and through providing professional resources and platforms to showcase new work.

• WepublishanthologiesoforiginalplayswrittenbySingapore playwrights and books on theatre.

• Wepursuecollaborationswithinternationalpartners to show Singapore work abroad.

Checkpoint Theatre is a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Major Grant for the period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2017.

About Checkpoint Theatre

Joint Artistic DirectorsClaire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman

Administrator and Production AssistantKaranina Suryadinata

Marketing and Communications AssistantJerusha Tan

Associate ArtistsLucas HoFaith NgOon Shu AnJoel TanShiv Tandan

Board of DirectorsPaul Anthony DraysonHuzir SulaimanClaire Wong

Singapore’s multi-disciplinary Checkpoint Theatre... a repository of much of the

territory’s best stage talent...

— Financial Times (UK)

Mirabel Neo Stage Manager

Mirabel Neo is a stage manager who obtained her BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2009. Her most recent stage managing credits include The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2015), It Won’t Be Too Long: the Cemetery,

Dusk (2015), Dim Sum Dollies – The History of Singapore Part 1 (2015), Normal (2015), Terra Incognita (2015), and Esplanade’s PLAYtime! series. She has also served as a production stage manager with New Opera Singapore on Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (2015), Die Fledermaus (2014) and My Nights with Dido and My Days with Aeneas (2013). Mirabel is very grateful to work with Checkpoint again and looks forward to more challenges coming her way in 2016! 

Huzir Sulaiman Co-producer

Huzir Sulaiman is the co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre. A critically acclaimed and award-winning playwright, his Collected Plays 1998-2012 was published in 2013. His plays have been translated into German, Japanese, Polish,

Indonesian and Mandarin. His essays and commentary pieces have appeared in The Star, The Straits Times, and The Huffington Post.

Recent directing includes The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2015), Interrogating the Interrogators: Selected Plays of Chong Tze Chien (2015), #UnicornMoment (2014), the 15th anniversary production of Atomic Jaya (2013), City Night Songs (2012), and The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2011), for which he was nominated for Best Director at the 2012 Life! Theatre Awards.

Currently an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National University of Singapore’s University Scholars Programme, Huzir has taught playwriting at the NUS English Department; the School of the Arts; New York University Tisch Asia; and Nanyang Technological University. He also heads Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy, and publishes POSKOD.SG, an online magazine about Singapore.

Huzir was educated at Princeton University, where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize, and is a Yale World Fellow.

For more information, visit www.checkpoint-theatre.org

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