The Vault: Who's Asking? Who's Talking?

Marking the 30th anniversary of the Singapore premiere of Madame Mao’s Memories, Who’s Talking? Who’s Asking? comprises two original performances devised in response to the play.

Written by Henry Ong in 1989, Madame Mao’s Memories is a monodrama based on accounts on the life of Jiang Qing (1914 – 1991), former Shanghainese actor, major Chinese political figure, and consort to the Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong. After the death of Mao in 1976, Jiang Qing was imprisoned for her involvement in orchestrating the Cultural Revolution, a violent sociopolitical movement that led to widespread persecutions and killings.

T:>Works staged Madame Mao’s Memories in 1991, directed by Ong Keng Sen, with the role of Jiang Qing performed by Claire Wong. In the following year, T:>Works brought the production to the Edinburgh Festival where it received international critical acclaim.

Thirty years on from Madame Mao’s Memories’s Singapore premiere, nine students from the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies TS3103 Theatre Lab have been engaging with the text and context of the play, developing two performances which respond to its themes, issues and dramaturgy.

Join us on 9 April at the 72-13, home of T:>Works, to uncover who’s talking and who’s asking in Madame Mao’s Memories.

On 29 April, we held the online watch party and artist sharing of Who’s Asking? Who’s Talking?. The creators of Fragments and Nobody Asked! presented an introduction to the creative process of their work. Following that, a question and answer segment was moderated by Dr. Robin Loon, module chair for TS3103. The session was open to the public and attendees got to offer comments and questions which were then answered by the students.

Watch the artist sharing segment below: