Edinburgh Fringe 2025
AH-MA
Cathy Lam Arts Collective
Genre: Drama, International, One Person Show
Venue: theSpace@Niddry Street, Studio Theatre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Kasen is completely in control of her material. Every second of this story of love and loss is created with beauty and elegance, she inhabits the space like only the best performers can, we can’t take our eyes off her. Light and sound cues are flawless. “In the face of loss, what remains? This question resonated deeply with me—not only about the destruction of homes but also about memory, identity, and what it means to be human.”
Review
A black box, the usual stage at the Fringe, a large playing area, empty except for a simple blue chair, on it a slightly old fashioned floral women’s blouse. Music is playing: Fujianese opera as we soon find out, it was Ah-Ma’s favourite.
Lightly onto the stage with bare feet steps the protagonist Cathy, the actress who plays her is called Kasen Tsui. She is of Chinese origin, her hair in a ponytail, her fringe often softly falling over her face. She wears comfy chinos and an orange jumper. In a strong (but not difficult to understand) Chinese accent she tells us the story we have come to witness.
Kasen is kind and patient, she is completely in control of her material. Every second is created with beauty and elegance, she inhabits the space – an empty room – like only the best performers can, we can’t take our eyes off her. Light and sound cues are flawless, I have not seen any other production as perfect as this one in its technical detail. Kasen is not only an actress, she is also a dancer, her movements are deliberate and guided, at one moment, while she stands on a chair, having climbed in her story onto the roof of her house, a bee flies around her and her hand dances the insect’s journey. No photo of this production does it justice, you have to witness her exquisite movement to appreciate her art.
The story Kasen tells us deals with Cathy’s experiences when a short while ago and living in Calfornia with her husband and baby, the Eaton Canyon fire displaced her from her home for a month and many of her neighbours lost everything. This inspired Cathy to reflect on the slow loss of her beloved grandmother to dementia. A time of such frightening hardship has always made artists look at their life anew and will surely bring more artworks into the world, be they drama, novels, pieces. Cathy’s description of houses turned to ash reminded me of the massive works of Anselm Kiefer who grew up after the second world war and saw destroyed houses, cities, made canvasses of shocking destruction.
Kasen shows us the relationship between grandmother and young Cathy by playing with the blouse which easily doubles as a swaddled baby, a wayward child and more. There is great craft in using such a small prop so skillfully and when Kasen as Cathy gently smoothes the blouse back over the chair, we know she is hugging her grandma’s shoulders. The child was raised by her grandmother and the two were inseparable, but sometimes the grandmother had to go away for a month and the scene where the child cries, chasing the bus and then almost choking with tears at the thought of not seeing her beloved Ah-Ma for a whole month is portrayed with a true dancer’s energy and understanding of a child’s pain. I was also impressed by the few seconds in which we saw Kasen become the strict and unsympathetic mother to the wailing child. I could see why the mother might have been unsympathetic at times. In a hilarious moment of theatrical meta trickery, Kasen shouts: “Spotlight!” only to then continue her wailing under a beam of brightness. Mothers know how little girls enjoy being noticed. There are other instances where the fourth wall is gently broken, where we are not only seeing but seen which in a show of such intricate perfection adds a layer of danger – the audience could destroy your perfect set-up.
As Ah-Ma begins to lose her memory and becomes wheelchair bound, the young woman gently pushes the chair around the floor and reminds her grandmother to remember that God loves her. “God loves me” she crows the old woman time and time again, a memory that will stay with some of us, who have lived with a loved one in the throes of dementia, forever.
As we file out of the auditorium, the author and protagonist are there to talk to us and comfort those who weep. The positive message of this performance is to acknowledge resilience: much as the grass and trees shoot up again and the bees fly and find flowers after the forest has burnt to the ground, so can humans use their memories of those who were strong before us to rebuild and carry on. If actors and writers can produce plays of such beauty as this, then there is indeed hope.
