Esplanade Presents

Theatre

Fragments of Tuah

Mark Teh & Five Arts Centre (Malaysia)

24 Jul 2026, Fri, 8pm

25 Jul 2026, Sat, 8pm

26 Jul 2026, Sun, 3pm

1hr 30mins

(Intermission: None)

Esplanade Theatre Studio

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Photo credit: Pam Lim
Photo credit: Pam Lim
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Synopsis

“indelibly evocative and brimming with sensoriality” – Critics Republic

 

BOH Cameronian Arts Awards 2026 – Best Original Script; Best Director; Best Set and/or Visual Media; Best Music & Sound Design, overall Best of 2025

 

What does loyalty mean today? What gaps have shaped our understanding of the past? And who decides which myths are worth remembering?

 

Fragments of Tuah is a documentary theatre work set to original music that revisits, dissects, and reimagines the enduring mythical figure of Hang Tuah—a purported 15th-century warrior often deployed as an emblem of unquestioning allegiance to the state and her ruler. His legend and memory continue to echo across time, shaping the narratives of loyalty, identity, and power in Malaysia even to this day.

 

Over three years, Five Arts Centre members Mark Teh, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Syamsul Azhar together with close collaborator Wong Tay Sy researched the different faces, facets and phases of this fabled figure, and in the process confronted what all these incarnations of Hang Tuah might mean for the historical and contemporary landscapes within and beyond Malaysia.

 

The audience is invited into a space of reflection where the fragments of Tuah are pieced together not to restore a whole, but to explore the gaps, contradictions, and questions that linger. Rather than offering a single truth or linear biography, Fragments of Tuah is a layered collage of perspectives and materials-drawn from archival texts, schoolbooks, songs, state slogans, invented memories, and historical erasures.

 

Want to get behind the scenes? Learn how the team from Five Arts Centre navigates the personal and political while working with archival materials in a masterclass on Unpacking Fragments of Tuah (26 Jul).

 

Performers / Musicians: Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, OJ Law, Shariman Shuhaime

Director: Mark Teh

Production Designer: Wong Tay Sy

Lighting Designer: Syamsul Azhar

Multimedia Designers: Syamsul Azhar, Bryan Chang

Stage Manager: Armanzaki Amirolzakri

Producer: June Tan

Assistant Producer / Production Manager: Hoe Hui Ting

Executive Producer: Five Arts Centre

Advisory:

R18 (Includes content that some might find culturally or religiously sensitive)

 

There will be a post-show dialogue after the performances on 24 & 25 Jul, Fri & Sat, 8pm.

Admission Age:
18 and above.
Language: English, Malay
Surtitle Language: English
Things to Note:
Accessibility: All our venues are wheelchair-accessible. We offer various services to support patrons with access needs. For assistance, please contact Esplanade Customer Experience at 6828 8377. Concessions are available for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and one accompanying companion. To learn more, read our accessibility guide.
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Artist Information

Mark Teh

Director

Mark Teh is a performance maker, researcher, and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His diverse, collaborative projects take on documentary, speculative and generative forms, and address the entanglements of history, memory, counter-cartography, and the political. His practice is situated primarily in performance, but also operates via exhibitions, education, social interventions, writing, and curating. He graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London. 

 

Mark’s projects have been presented at ILHAM Gallery KL, OzAsia Festival Adelaide, SPIELART Festival Munich, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting, Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM), Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum Chiang Mai, Salihara Jakarta, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Fast Forward Festival Athens, MMCA Seoul, Haus de Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, amongst others.  

 

In 2024, Mark was a recipient of the Prince Claus-British Council Fellows Award for Moving Narratives.

Five Arts Centre

Five Arts Centre is a dynamic collective of Malaysian artists, activists, and producers, dedicated to generating alternative art forms and images in the contemporary arts landscape. They are known for cutting edge performances in theatre, dance, music, and young people’s theatre, and incorporate aspects of visual and digital arts as well. Since its formation in 1984, Five Arts Centre has been committed to articulating the complexity of Malaysian culture and identity through explorations and fusions of local vocabularies, forms, and traditions – in relation to the global, modern, and cross-cultural.

 

Five Arts Centre has been involved in capacity building for the arts with previously managing Arts Network Asia, an organisation supporting regional exchanges across Asia; managing the Krishen Jit Fund (launched together with ASTRO) to support the work of arts practitioners; and being serving as the secretariat for the ReformARTsi coalition, made up of arts organisations, practitioners, and academics to build consensus and advocacy on policy reforms for the performing arts. Five Arts Centre has also been recognised for its contributions by receiving the inaugural “Most Inspiring Award” at the 2015 Boh Cameronian Arts Awards, and the 2016 “Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists” award from The Japan Art Association.

Date & Time

24 Jul 2026, Fri

8pm

Esplanade Theatre Studio

There will be a post-show dialogue.

25 Jul 2026, Sat

8pm

Esplanade Theatre Studio

There will be a post-show dialogue.

26 Jul 2026, Sun

3pm

Esplanade Theatre Studio
Tickets & Prices
Standard

Students, NSFs, Seniors & PWDs
(Limited)

Price $42 $34

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  • Concession Ticket

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