A personal story about reminiscence, loss and language fascination. Ahilan attempts the performance entirely in Tamil, a language he didn’t learn as a child. His mother, sitting next to him on stage, becomes his teacher who encourages and prompts him. In this manner, Ahilan traces the roots of this language loss to its rediscovery.

During his childhood in Western Sydney, Ahilan Ratnamohan never learned Tamil. For the past seven years, he has studied and improved via Skype conversations with his mother, to the point that they can communicate for the first time in 'their' mother language. But this is not without its difficulties. It became clear to him that he would have to study for hours to master Tamil. Alas, you cannot learn Jaffna Tamil from textbooks or by watching the news. It is passed on through the family and the community. It continues through diaspora meetings around the world. That makes it beautiful. But also elusive.

A post-performance panel, 'Multilingual storytelling: resistance and reclamation' (Auslan interpreted) will take place on Sunday 19 January at 3pm, featuring Ahilan Ratnamohan.