REVIEW: Ah-Ma - Holding Time, Holding Love

©️Ah-Ma Production

Ah-Ma is a quiet, deeply personal solo show that invites the audience to slow down and listen to a fragmented life story, observed with care and tenderness.

Written and directed by Cathy Lam, this piece follows Ah-Ma's (Fujianese for grandmother) life story through the eyes of the narrator, the granddaughter. Ah-Ma cannot fully grasp her own life, or even her memories. Yet these fragments are carefully held with love, preserving an unbreakable connection between them.

The narration is delicate and intimate, like finely written prose. The audience follows the narrator through this family’s daily life: observing fire in the distance, listening to the sounds of insects in the fields, waiting for the cross-border phone call to be picked up, experiencing family visits during Spring Festival, and reading Ah-Ma’s handwriting again and again. Through the storytelling alone, one can feel the deep affection that underpins every moment of their lives.

On stage, a simple clothing on a single chair transforms fluidly with Kasen Tui’s physical theatre performance: rolled up, it becomes a baby held in arms; draped over the shoulder, it becomes a comforting embrace; spread over the head, it becomes a bridal veil that takes Ah-Ma to another family, another life.

As a piece of slow-rhythmed solo show, there are moments of silence and stillness, leaving the audience with little to observe but the narrative itself. Some may find this passivity challenging, yet it also mirrors the meditative quality of memory - the quiet spaces where love and life linger.

Ah-Ma is a gentle, intimate work that uses the story of one life to reflect the everyday realities of people in Fujian and Hong Kong across decades. It is a quiet reminder that storytelling, at its best, is not only about recounting events, but about holding time, holding love, and offering it to those we cherish above time.

★★★★

For more information, please visit: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ah-ma

Credits

Writer & Director: Cathy Lam
Cast: Kasen Tui
Production Company: Asia Base