Diaspora
TheatreWorks / Ong Keng Sen
Official Cultural Performance of Singapore 2006
18 – 21 September 2006
Esplanade Concert Hall
Conceived, written and directed by Ong Keng Sen
Video Installation by Choy Ka Fai
Electronic Composition by Toru Yamanaka
In collaboration with Ariani Darmawan, Zai Kuning, Dinh Le,
Navin Rawanchaikul, Tintin Wulia
And the Singapore Chinese Orchestra conducted by Maestro Tsung Yeh
In performance with Koh Boon Pin, Janice Koh, Lim Kay Tong, Nora Samosir, Rindu Malam (Gambang Kromong Orchestra)
A sweeping, panoramic docu-performance based on the Chinese saying “To seek a better life by crossing the Four Seas”. Diaspora explores memory, migration, assimilation, the triumph of the human spirit in time and space.
“Travelling the seas, we fall asleep and dream; in these dreams we experience transience, reclamation, transformation. Often we do not have a choice as to where we are born but where do we want our remains to be returned to?”
A celebration of humanity and human tenacity.
“Every night I would hear them going to the butchery, the butchery of humans. The trucks would pass by my house, four trucks and that’s only in front of my house. Other places I don’t know.”
“So what was on the trucks, live people or dead people?”
“Live people to be killed, to be butchered.”
“So how were they killed?”
“Some were shot, some had their heads chopped off.”
www.theatreworks.org.sg, www.72-13.com
Diaspora has been an amazing Journey, an once-in-a-lifetime experience,