Lost Dream: Traumatic Literature (A Play in Six acts)

How do we cope with trauma that afflicts individuals, families, and entire nations, trauma that is both deeply rooted in the past and transmitted intergenerationally into the present? This is the central question that this team grapples with in “Lost Dreams”, which adapts five books about violent chapters in the history of Southeast Asian countries into a play. The script evocatively stages key moments in these stories, from the killing of a girl’s father by the Khmer Rouge, to an elderly woman breaking her silence on her suffering in the Japanese Occupation. In the play’s final act, descendants of the five stories’ survivors gather and share their families' stories, and how they continue to move forward. This poignant epilogue reflects the team’s belief that literature can play a vital role in not only shedding light on hidden histories of violence, but also creating spaces for us to come to terms with this trauma, together.