The Tongue's Memory of Home

The Tongue's Memory of Home

Zuheniao

Fringe Theatre

Reviewed: Jan 17

This hour-long production combines movement, dance, sound and video to depict the horrors of losing one's sense of identity and individuality.

Directed by Zhang Xian, The Tongue's Memory of Home is inspired by excerpts of unpublished works by Shanghai poets of the 1980s: Wang Yin, Lu Yimin and Zhang Zhen. The focus is not so much on their poems but the fact they were banned by the authorities at the time, when poetry was considered (as in many authoritarian states) to be dangerous. This piece explores the other side of the coin: when everyone's tongue has become a tool for one collective voice, this will eventually drown out all traces of individualism.