SINGAPORE – Doomscrolling during the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysian theatre-maker Mark Teh encountered a puzzling phenomenon: Content creators, many of them young, were racing one another to visit the birth and death locations of Hang Tuah, a 15th-century warrior who is a household name in Malaysia.

While a resurgent interest in history among the young would usually earn applause, Teh was disturbed. Previous generations had been comfortable with Hang Tuah as a figure that existed between fact and fiction, yet he was now asserted as a bona fide historical figure.

Along with co-conspirators from his collective Five Arts Centre, Teh, over four years, scampered into the rabbit hole, beginning a six-session study group to read the 500-page literary epic Hikayat Hang Tuah. The resulting performance, Fragments Of Tuah, will play as part of the Esplanade’s The Studios Season from July 24 to 26. The work swept the top awards at the 21st Boh Cameronian Arts Awards in Malaysia on May 4, including for Best Original Script and Best In Show.

Teh says over Zoom: “Someone in publishing said Hikayat Hang Tuah is a book everyone has in their household to show off how cultured they are, but no one has actually read it.” He adds: “He is almost a cliche. He is one of the most sought after roles in film, in theatre. For most Malaysians, he’s like oxygen. He’s around, but also in the subconscious.”

Fragments Of Tuah tries to give this shadow some colour by resurfacing many of the ways Hang Tuah has been represented. The play’s blueprint of an individual performer flanked by two musicians is taken from the popular figure of the itinerant storyteller, though Teh has found this mode of the solo entertainer equally suited to a politician pumping up a crowd from a pulpit, the stand-up comedian or even the views-chasing TikToker.

His team is not interested in the warrior’s verity nor the heroic and patriotic values he has been reduced to. The most famous story of Hang Tuah fighting for the Sultan of Melaka against childhood friend Hang Jebat, is from the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), an embellished historical text.

Teh be...