‘Miraculous counter-archive brought to life … packs an epic journey into an hour-long multimedia performance. THE STRAIT TIMES

This multimedia performance explores memory, inheritance and family history of visual artist Sim Chi Yin against the setting of the Malayan Emergency.

Part documentary and part a speculative look at how we might deal with the past, One Day We’ll Understand excavates hidden histories, Chinese diasporic experiences and the long legacies of colonialism. Through the lens of Sim’s life and camera, we time-travel into her family archive, recovering traces left in the wake of the anti-colonial war in British Malaya and beyond.

Drawing on Sim’s large body of evocative photographic and filmic work, probing questions both personal and universal, One Day We’ll Understand transcends the autobiographical to a larger canvas that speaks to memory, loss, trauma, restitution and repair.

Led by a Singaporean-Australian creative team, One Day We’ll Understand combines haunting imagery with narration, archival footage, and a driving live score by percussionist Cheryl Ong, giving voice to Sim’s multiple personas as artist, historian, writer, mother and granddaughter, opening up ways to think about our pasts and futures.

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

Singtel Waterfront Theatre, Esplanade, Singapore, September 2024

Footscray Community Arts, Melbourne, as part of Asia TOPA, March 2025

ARTISTS

Concept & Performance Sim Chi Yin

Sound artist & Performance Cheryl Ong

Direction Tamara Saulwick

Dramaturgy Kok Heng Leun

Video Design and Audio Engineering Nick Roux

Lighting Design Andy Lim I ARTFACTORY

Technical Production Seok Yap

AWARDS

Winner, Nick Roux for Best Multimedia, Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2025

One Day We’ll Understand was commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. It received partial funding support from the National Arts Council, Creative Australia, and contributions from Ho Bee Foundation, and Foundation for Arts and Social Enterprise. Asia TOPA is a joint initiative of the Sidney Myer Fund and Arts Centre Melbourne and is supported by the Australian and Victorian Governments.