Ah-Ma

Tuesday 5th August 11am

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Ah-Ma is, we are told, Fujianese for Grandmother. Ten years ago, Ah-Ma was diagnosed with dementia, struggling more each day to remember the names of her loved ones. So begins the journey of the storyteller’s intense relationship with her grandmother from Ah-Ma’s birth, youth and marriage, through the writer’s own birth and life, until Ah-Ma’s physical and mental deterioration as she aged – “Ah-Ma, if one day you forget everything, please try not to forget love.“

This is a new play, written and directed by Fringe First winner (2023) Cathy Lam and played so beautifully and tenderly by Hong Kong Young Artist award winner (2024) Kasum Tsui. We open with a bare stage containing one piece of furniture and one prop, both of which double variously as, amongst many other things, a baby and an apartment block roof. Kasum Tsui invests every moment with huge grace and dignity, from the most poignant to the most humorous (as when, as a child, she has an End of the World tantrum on learning that she will be separated from her grandmother for a WHOLE MONTH!)

This is a beautiful piece about resilience in the face of natural and social disasters, physical and mental decline and family sorrow, without ever being either sombre or trite – “a story of memories slipping away, only to be gently reclaimed”. (DM)

Ah-Ma is playing daily at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry St until August 19th (not 10th) - details here