Takashima Megumi | KYOTO EXPERIMENT Kyoto International Festival of Performing Arts 2025 ① Mark Teh / Five Arts Centre 'The Shadow of Hang Tuah'
Mark Teh/Five Arts Centre's 'The Shadow of Hang Tuah' explores the diffusion of false images in the formation of national identity using the Malaysian hero Hang Tuah.Summary
This article reviews 'The Shadow of Hang Tuah' by Mark Teh/Five Arts Centre, presented at the KYOTO EXPERIMENT Kyoto International Festival of Performing Arts 2025. The work centers on the legendary Malaysian hero, Hang Tuah, examining how his image is utilized as a symbol of Malay nationalism and its role in shaping national identity, employing multimedia elements like text, video, and music. Hang Tuah is portrayed as a 'hero with a thousand faces,' whose story is composed of numerous copies and revised representations, including a film depicting his anguish over killing a friend and a dagger allegedly excavated in Okinawa. The performance suggests fluidity in identity, as the narrator adopts multiple roles, culminating in a beautiful final scene where wave-like light characters visualize the spread of an intangible network of information that covers the world, representing the desire to narrate and record.
(Source：artscape)