Prisca Tang
“See You Through Memories” was a site-specific theatre performance that required the audience to walk through Patane (沙梨頭) in order to witness the urban changes through the lens of a family story, the co-director of the show, J Lei Ioi Chon, told The Macau Post Daily last week during a phone interview.
Lei said that the idea for the show started when Candy Kuok Soi Peng reached out to her and said she wanted to use her research on the history of Patane in a site-specific theatre performance. Lei said that Kuok grew up in Patane – known in Cantonese as “Sa Lei Tau” – and has a lot of precious memories associated with the area, therefore she wanted to share its old and recent history specifically with local residents.
According to Lei, Patane used to be Macau’s only connection with the outside world, adding that major port activities and the colonial history of Macau started in the area. Lei pointed out that Patane, however, gradually faded out of its important role and vanished from residents’ minds.
Lei said the story of Patane began at a temple at the junction of Largo do Pagode do Patane and Pátio do Alfinete.
“To be exact, we started the performance at the oldest Tou Tei Temple. The temple has been around since the Ming Dynasty. Before the area got its name “Patane”, the Tou Tei Temple was a landmark for people to know where they were,” Lei explained.
Time travel tunnel
Lei said that the performance started with the grand history of the area and slowly narrowed down to a personal history and memory of the place. She said that after visting the temple, the performers led the audience through a secret passage.
“Like a time tunnel, we travelled from the past to the present,” Lei added. She said that the audience could explore the more recent history of Patane, for example, the Sin Fong Garden scandal and the severe flooding caused by super typhoons. She said the audience saw the transformation from a once “happening area” to an area full of declining industries in front of their very eyes.
“People are always fascinated by the ‘secret passageway’ but it is actually a public road that residents of the area are very familiar with. Sometimes, a city as small as Macau also requires one to do some digging and exploring. It is like a person’s memory, if you don’t dig or explore it, you will forget what you have done in the past,” Lei said.
Seeing the area from a different angle
When asked why she chose the on-site theatre performance over a regular black box theatre performance, Lei said that sometimes being in the area helps the audience to see it from a different angle. She said that even though there are a lot of uncontrollable variables being outdoors, like the weather and the space, on-site still has an influential effect on the audience.
“My team created an atmosphere for the audience to feel and see Patane from a different angle. By the end of the performance, the ones who are willing to open up their feelings should be able to feel the effect and emotions we aimed to portray,” Lei said.
Lei said the audience could choose freely how involved they wanted to be. She pointed out that for those who wanted to be more engaged with the performance, they could walk around the crowd to get the best angle of what they wanted to see, adding that those who did not feel like engaging with the show could hang back.
When asked who the target audience for the performance had been, Lei said she loved to share the story with local residents and let them see the area through her memories.
The last of the seven “See You Through Memories” performances took place on Monday.
Co-director of “See You Through Memories” J Lei Ioi Chon. Photos: Cultural Affairs Bureau
