Unheard Voice of Love

The light comes up, revealing 17 young boys sitting in red chairs, facing one another, contemplating. The bold red colour grabs the audience’s attention and reflects the sense of anger and frustration of the perfomers. An enraged boy attacks the others on the spur of the moment, resulting in a chaotic battle. This depiction of youth rebellion raises up the curtain of the drama – In Fact, We… 

 

The drama features the real life story of a group of adolescents, who in the past were disobedient and alienated. It is a collection of their own monologues that initiate a dialogue with their past. These young people, whose emotional crisis or lack of support led them to lives of drug use, are all from Teen Challenge Macau, a non-profit substance abuse rehabilitation centre. Last month they took a stand and expressed themselves loudly and bravely through performances at Theatre Farmers, a local theatre group and performance venue.

 

The show made its debut at the Macau Fringe Festival in 2013 receiving positive reviews and feedback.  The drama looks at what drags teenagers down when they encounter emotional crises in adolescence. Organised by Teen Challenge Macau and the Artistry of Wind Box, a community-based art development association, it aims to connect us to the unheard voices of teens to allow for more mutual understanding, tolerance and respect, and also compel us to think more about our current education system.

 

The music stops.  The light fades away. In a room full of darkness, a voice emerges from the periphery. Faces can’t be seen. It’s time to just listen.

 

“My father was took drugs. He was addicted to cocaine and heroin. I dislike him so much and despise him. He destroyed my childhood,” says a young man. His sadness has not dimmed with the passage of time. “I never thought I would end up like him. What an irony! I want to tell my sister, don’t follow what I did. Be smart and take good care of yourself. Work harder on your studies.”

 

The lights return and the voice vanishes. A bitter violin melody unchains the sadness. In the play, each performer embraces who they were and expresses what they are now.  They strive to prepare themselves to face potential chaos back in the real world after they leave the centre. But it’s never easy. Each of them has a substantial criminal record that follows them like a tattoo marked forever on their body. It takes a lot of courage to try to start again and lead a new life.

 

A short film fades in. It’s about a defenceless boy being bullied outside a cybercafé. He quits school and is abandoned. He chooses to take drugs in order to make more friends. The film attempts to remind us of what exactly is happening in Macau – an affluent town lacking compassion and love. Living in a highly materialistic city, he indulges himself in a life of dissipation, and his happiness is usually realised only through taking drugs. 

 

Lights flash and music rocks the stage. A young man wearing a mask walks in. He moves and dances as if he were a puppet controlled by unseen wires that connect to his limbs and body. He is a street dancer, practicing and performing for over a decade. No matter how hard it is going to be, he believes that his dream will one day soar. 

 

“I have loved hip-pop dance since I was a child. This is my dream that I dared not tell anyone in the past. I’m scared to be teased. I am not trying to prove that I can do something people can’t. I just love performing on stage, as I can find a sense of comfort here,” he says.

 

The dancer admits that he hated the way his teachers tried to control him and so he quit school. 

 

“I remember when I was in kindergarten, I didn’t want to take an afternoon nap. My teacher punished me by putting a fake cockroach on my hands. I was petrified. I disliked schooling since then. I started to wonder why learning necessarily has something to do with tests and examinations. Why do I have to bother to memorise every single word from the textbooks?” he asks.

 

Believing that a change of environment will certainly help with their treatment, the centre connects the teenagers with some occupational training programmes so that they can develop their talents and equip themselves with various skills, such as heritage restoration, sound and lighting systems control, video making, and event management. This is critical to helping them quit their old way of life. The show is an outcome of the programme, and hopes to prepare them for future challenges. Most of the team are first-time performers.

 

Another scene, another promise.  A mother next to me wipes her eyes. She says nothing but is clearly touched. A band takes to the stage with their music.

 

The lights dim.  A young man appears and narrates his own story, recalling memories from his childhood. Football and online games often kept him from going to sleep at night. He knows his parents loved him and are now happy in heaven. But he still feels sorry that he didn’t see his father for the last time and say goodbye to him forever.

 

“What would I say if I had the chance to farewell my father?” he asks. 

 

Another young man steps in, complaining of his loveless childhood. 

 

“You don’t have to scold a child for his wrongdoings. I’m not your puppet.” 

 

He was born into a broken family and raised up in a Mahjong centre, and what he learnt from school was smoking, fighting and gambling.

 

“When I was young, each day was like a reality show; violence and temptation was everywhere. For all those years, I just remember a saying from my mum: ‘Drugs are never a friend of yours. They’ll ruin you and kill your future,’” he says.

 

The lights go out again. In the darkness, there’s a moving moment to share. A social worker expresses her joy after the show and her admiration of how far these performers have come and their determination to lead a new life. 

 

“I have watched the show three times. I cried a lot the first time, then I calmed down a bit the second and now I laughed a lot this time,” she continues. “Each of you is the protagonist of your life and plays a role in our society. Find yourself a good ‘director’ for your life, and it will promise you a good show. 

 

“We all encounter setbacks and at times don’t behave as we should. Tonight you have taken a bold step to face the past and think about the present. There is always someone behind you to cheer you up when you’re down,” she says.

 

A performer expresses his gratitude for the feeling of love from the audience. 

 

“It’s my first time to reveal myself in front of so many people, talking about my dreams,” he says. “In real life I don’t like those who try to impress by using pretentious jargon. I just love real characters where every emotion is on the surface.” 

 

“I want to show young people that it’s always possible to correct mistakes and turn over a new leaf. The show is a testimony of our past. We make our promises right here and will live to keep our words. Lives impact lives,” he says.

 

The show ends with a song – The Gifts of Imperfection, reminding us to let go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embrace who we are: