Centre 42

Late-Night Texting is held in conjunction with BrasBrasah.Bugis Precinct’s Singapore Night Festival in August each year. Started in 2016, this annual project emerged from young artists wanting a platform to stage short performances that are fun for both performers and audiences. Late-Night Texting has since become a showcase of text-based works by emerging theatre groups, independent collectives and artists, reaching out to old and new audiences.


Late-Night Texting

Featured Artist

The Second Breakfast Company

A young boy is taught by his Father to overcome his fears like Badang once did in Vomit, two convenience store clerks have a spooky encounter with an Orang Minyak in Supervisor, and a writer resolves to retell the story of Mat Jenin in Mat Jenin is not Lazy. All these and other reimaginings of Malay folktales in Mystical Tales in Tampines!Mystical Tales in Tampines reimagines and retells stories based on different folklore and mysteries from the Malay world.

Mystical Tales in Tampines (2023)

Three besties on the precipice of adulthood find themselves in difficult situations. Tobias, a struggling theatre actor, can't seem to catch a break. Rina dreams of a future bigger than her modest background. Meanwhile, Sara seems to have everything going for her, but is it all too good to be true? The trio navigate the pains of growing up in Singapore and along the way, find out what it takes to get their life together… or at least try to.The Second Breakfast Company, in collaboration with Wisma Geylang Se

The Paiseh Pieces (2023)

Posters for&nbsp;The Essential Playlist&nbsp;(2022).


The Essential Playlist (2022), Posters

In post-COVID-19 times, a group of millennial comedy content creators hopes to seriously review and revamp their brand image to take on more social issues. Staggering teams in their rented office space, they pitch content ideas for a new series called The Essential Playlist, combining human feature vignettes, thought experiments and fictionalisations of real-world encounters of and with essential workers in Singapore.

In unravelling these (un)filtered stories, creative conflicts surface within the group:

The Essential Playlist (2022)

Poster for&nbsp;Geylang Serai Trails&nbsp;(2021).


Geylang Serai Trails (2021), Poster

Home to famous kueh stalls and the much-loved Ramadhan bazaar, Geylang Serai precinct has many hidden gems that are just waiting to be (re)discovered. Through the eyes of five exciting playwrights, tour the district to a curated playlist of original radio plays inspired by the lives and rich mercantile histories of its residents.


Geylang Serai Trails (2021)

Poster for&nbsp;The Singapore Trilogy&nbsp;(2021).


The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Poster

Integrating story and text from Are You There, Singapore? (1974), One Year Back Home (1980) and Changi (1997), the three plays of Yeo’s Trilogy provoked much reflection about the staging of politics in a new nation forging its own identity and development.

Set across the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, The Singapore Trilogy follows the intertwining stories of two siblings and a close friend – Chye, Hua and Fernandez – first as international students in London before returning home to participate in Singapor

The Singapore Trilogy (2021)

Audiovisual for&nbsp;The Singapore Trilogy&nbsp;(2021).&nbsp;


The Singapore Trilogy (2021), VOD

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Trailer

The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye presents a radio play adaptation of four selected texts from Hook and Eye: Stories from the Margins (Ethos, 2018). From uncertain tensions of a migrant family in Ang Mo Kio, school projects on Syrian refugees, a National Day Parade watch party, and the journey of a wounded migrant worker, these four narratives reflect the self’s desire for connection and belonging within a nexus of tenuous relations. This series is a part of Night Spin 182.7FM, the festival radio station 

The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye (2020)

Poster for&nbsp;The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye&nbsp;(2020).


The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye (2020), Poster

Stories of 9 different people from Singapore society converge in a hawker centre on its last day before closing down after 43 years to make way for redevelopment. With the nation fast progressing, what will it leave behind?

After a sold out first staging at the Asian Youth Theatre Festival 2018, The Second Breakfast Company’s first ever immersive work, The Hawker, is back again – bigger and better! Indulge your inner kaypohness and eavesdrop into the different conversations of this not-so-typical theatri

The Hawker (2019)

Poster for&nbsp;The Hawker&nbsp;(2019).


The Hawker (2019), Poster

Audiovisual for&nbsp;The Hawker&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;


The Hawker (2019), Trailer

Poster for&nbsp;Performing Malay Sketches&nbsp;(2019).


Performing Malay Sketches (2019), Poster

Who is the Malay person in Singapore?

In this play-within-a-play, local theatre company, The Second Breakfast Company, brings Alfian Sa’at’s anthology of short stories, Malay Sketches, to the stage. Through stage enactments of sketches from the book, Performing Malay Sketches peels back the layers of this text exploring the question of how to construct and portray the Malay identity in Singapore – and how it is represented, perceived and celebrated.


Performing Malay Sketches (2019)

Poster for&nbsp;The Old Woman and the Ox&nbsp;(2018).


The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Poster

The Old Woman and the Ox&nbsp;(2017) is a play written by 20-year-old playwright, Isaiah Christopher Lee, which explores the entangled currents of fear, guilt, loss and love.

Set against the absurdist backdrop of a crumbling house, the play follows Aileen and the ghosts of her memories as she seeks for something she cannot find except within herself. Aileen has grown disenchanted and apathetic after the traumatic events of her past. But what happens when her past returns to haunt her and she is forced to

The Old Woman and the Ox (2018)

A dramatised reading of local plays, old and new. Presented at Late Night Texting 2018.


Love Bites (2018)

February 14, the Japanese troops are approaching.

The Tay's household, rural Singapore. A welcoming offer of shelter from certain danger in the city turns into an uneasy living arrangement between two families worlds apart in class. Will their convictions and world-views hurt or help each other? Will they bother seeing past their trappings? Or rather, can they?

The Moon Is Less Bright presents a provoking look at our instinctive class consciousness, how we carry ourselves and judge others. When we res

The Moon is Less Bright (2018)

Poster for The Second Breakfast Company's 2018 Main Season, including&nbsp;The Moon is Less Bright&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Old Woman and the Ox.&nbsp;


2018 Main Season (2018), Poster

Poster for&nbsp;The Moon is Less Bright&nbsp;(2018).


The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Poster

Audiovisual for&nbsp;The Moon is Less Bright&nbsp;(2018).&nbsp;


The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Trailer

A double bill of two new works by young writers Myle Yan Tay and Chelsea Cheo.


Lemmings & The Wedding Pig (2017)

Centre 42 currently has limited information on this archive entry. If you possess any relevant information and/or archival material, please contact us at&nbsp;archive@centre42.sg.


Lemmings (2017)

The Wedding Pig (2017)

Poster for&nbsp;Lemmings &amp; The Wedding Pig&nbsp;(2017).


Lemmings & The Wedding Pig (2017), Poster

Poster for&nbsp;The Wedding Pig&nbsp;(2017).


The Wedding Pig (2017), Poster

Two sisters, one pig, 0 chill. Old familial tensions flare as two sisters become possessive over a wedding necklace significant to both.


Family (2016), Poster

Ferocious and unyielding, Mrs Yang is the unwilling matriarch of her family. She gives the final word, and everyone complies. Only time will tell if the decisions she made, laying the foundations of her empire will stand the test of progress and development. Can Mrs Yang pull it together before growth makes way for decay?


Family (2016)

Audiovisual for&nbsp;Family&nbsp;(2016).&nbsp;


Family (2016), Trailer

A co-creation initiative in conjunction with Geylang East Public Library including a workshop phase and culminating in a presentation of a new, devised play.


Interchange (2015)

Poster for&nbsp;Interchange&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;


Interchange (2015), Poster

A dramatised play-reading of the local tragicomedy by Jean Tay.


Everything but the Brain (2015)

Photograph for&nbsp;The Old Woman and the Ox&nbsp;(2018)


The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Photograph 2

Family (2016), Photograph 3

Photograph for&nbsp;The Singapore Trilogy&nbsp;(2021)


The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 7

Photograph for&nbsp;The Essential Playlist&nbsp;(2022)


The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 10

The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Photograph 5

Family (2016), Photograph 6

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 10

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 13

Photograph for&nbsp;Performing Malay Sketches&nbsp;(2019)


Performing Malay Sketches (2019), Photograph 1

Family (2016), Photograph 9

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 13

Photograph for&nbsp;The Essential Playlist (2022)&nbsp;


Photograph for&nbsp;Everything but the Brain&nbsp;(2015)


Everything but the Brain (2015), Photograph 3

Performing Malay Sketches (2019), Photograph 4

Family (2016), Photograph 12

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 16

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 18

Everything but the Brain (2015), Photograph 6

Photograph for&nbsp;The Moon is Less Bright&nbsp;(2018)


The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Photograph 3

Photograph for&nbsp;The Hawker&nbsp;(2019)


The Hawker (2019), Photograph 1

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 19

Photograph for&nbsp;Interchange&nbsp;(2015)


Interchange (2015), Photograph 3

The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Photograph 6

The Hawker (2019), Photograph 4

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 22

Interchange (2015), Photograph 6

The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Photograph 9

The Hawker (2019), Photograph 7

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 25

Lemmings (2017), Photograph 3

Photograph for&nbsp;Geylang Serai Trails&nbsp;(2021)


Geylang Serai Trails (2021), Photograph 3

The Hawker (2019), Photograph 10

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 28

Lemmings (2017), Photograph 6

Geylang Serai Trails (2021), Photograph 6

The Hawker (2019), Photograph 13

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 2

Photograph for&nbsp;The Wedding Pig&nbsp;(2017)


The Wedding Pig (2017), Photograph 2

Geylang Serai Trails (2021), Photograph 9

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 2

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 5

Photograph for&nbsp;Love Bites&nbsp;(2018)


Love Bites (2018), Photograph 3

Family (2016), Photograph 1

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 5

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 8

The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Photograph 3

Family (2016), Photograph 4

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 8

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 11

The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Photograph 6

Family (2016), Photograph 7

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 11

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 14

Everything but the Brain (2015), Photograph 1

Performing Malay Sketches (2019), Photograph 2

Family (2016), Photograph 10

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 14

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 16

Everything but the Brain (2015), Photograph 4

The Moon is Less Bright (2018), Photograph 1

Family (2016), Photograph 13

The Singapore Trilogy (2021), Photograph 17

The Essential Playlist (2022), Photograph 19

<p>The Second Breakfast Company (2BCo) is a not-for-profit theatre company founded by youths, for youths. Based in Singapore, 2BCo was formed with the mission of cultivating youth theatre audiences and empowering the next generation of creatives. Its three main tenets of theatre works include reviving old classics, telling new stories written by young writers and reimagining texts.</p>

<p>Last Updated: September 2022</p>


Late-Night Texting is back again! For the third year running, Centre 42 throws open its doors for two nights of text-based experiences. From sunset, come wander the grounds of this historic blue house on Waterloo Street and catch over 30 short plays by up-and-coming theatre collectives Ground Z-O, Dark Matter Theatrics, Main Tulis Group and The Second Breakfast Company. Stroll around to the back for a more literary experience with a pop-up store and programming by BooksActually. Don’t forget to refuel for m

The Second Breakfast Company

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