UPCOMING:

National Memory Project

@ Drama Centre Black Box

Written by Johnny Jon Jon
Directed by Mohd Fared Jainal
Starring Fir Rahman and Ellison Tan Yuyang

Show Dates/Times:
25-27 June 2025, 8pm
28-29 June 2025, 3pm and 8pm

Synopsis

A cold, bureaucratic future not far from our own, memory becomes the final frontier of governance. The state has launched an ambitious initiative: to collect a single memory from every citizen, feeding an artificial intelligence designed to understand the nation better than its people ever could. But in the quiet chambers where these exchanges take place, what unfolds is far more intimate and far more human than any algorithm can compute.

At the heart of National Memory Project is Judy, a civil servant tasked with extracting memories from the condemned. Her latest assignment, Ahmad, a man awaiting execution, refuses to be reduced to data points. Their encounter unfolds as a tense and lyrical duel between duty and defiance, grief and preservation.

Told through a haunting blend of languages and time, this bold and unflinching new work interrogates who gets to shape history, and at what cost. In a world obsessed with optimization, the National Memory Project dares to ask: what if forgetting is the real policy?

National Memory Project will be performed in Malay, English, Hokkien, and Mandarin, with English surtitles available.

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