Three Malaysian artists take turns scribbling symbols and motifs with chalk on a blackboard floor that doubles as a stage, singing and telling stories. A screen hung behind the stage shows live interview footage, helping take audiences on a multimedia journey that transcends traditional theatrical performance to shed light on the skeletons in the closet of Malaysian history.
“We wanted to critically bring on stage the tools of the documentary or supposed ‘truth-making’ world – various cameras and media techniques such as the green screen,” director Mark Teh, a member of the Kuala Lumpur-based collective Five Arts Centre, founded in 1984, told Al Jazeera of his latest play A Notional History (2019). “The performers do everything in our show: there are no blackouts or backstage for them to hide, no stage managers to come in and transform the set.”
