Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Hijinks and humour abound in&nbsp;Mari Kita Main Wayang (Let’s Stage A Play)!

This play-within-a-play follows a group of Peranakans who come together to stage&nbsp;Empat Bini, an ambitious script that is set within the illustrious walls of a royal court. However, all is not as it seems—as the play unfolds, a gripping narrative of power gone awry among the players comes to light.

Presented in&nbsp;Baba Melayu&nbsp;and peppered with familiar expressions,&nbsp;Mari Kita Main Wayang&nbsp;is a love letter 

Mari Kita Main Wayang (2023)

Cast

A contemporary reimagining of the Indian epic tale&nbsp;The&nbsp;Mahabharata&nbsp;that resonates with the current day.The Pandavas and the Kauravas—two groups of cousins—struggle for political power and the claim to the dynastic succession to the throne of the Hastinapura, an Indian kingdom. The confrontation climaxes with an 18-day Kurukshetra War in which even the gods are involved. Unimaginable death and destruction ensue, and all on the battlefield are forced to face up to their&nbsp;dharma—their duty a

Kingdoms Apart (2022)

Playground Entertainment

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Firecrackers and Bombshells (2014)

Wild Rice

It is the year 2058. Singapore is reeling from an unprecedented attack: buildings have been flattened, tens of thousands of people have been killed. In fact, nearly everything in this once pristine and technologically advanced city-state has been destroyed.

A day after the disaster, Major General Abdul Aziz has taken over the reins of power in a military coup. A colony of intrepid survivors, led by activist Jessie Soon and pastor Simon Sitoh, have pooled their resources to rebuild Singapore.

Sifting t

Apocalypse: LIVE! (2008)

News from Nowhere

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An Oak Tree (2008)

Performer

With eight stories, Landmarks maps out the universal afflictions of love, desire and longing – of gay boys and men in straight Singapore (and the women who love them).

Characterised by Alfian Sa’at’s wit and insight, LANDMARKS will take you on an entertaining and enlightening journey across the island’s pink map, from Ann Siang Hill to Fort Road, from comedy to elegy. It is one journey we promise you won’t soon forget.

1. Katong Fugue
Secrets and ties:&nbsp;a son with a hidden life, a mother desperat

Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol. 2 (2004)

ACTION Theatre

A couple is dining out at an exclusive restaurant. They're celebrating a special event but frankly, he would rather just eat and go home. But she wants to talk and does not give up till they are both talking as they've never done before in all their time together. "Squeeze the lemon. Breathe!", says the woman. She also wants to know how happy the man is on a scale of 1 to 10. He rates it and asks her to massage his jaws.


Dinner For Two (2002)

Steven told his Dad he did not want to be "a fully paid-up member of the ruling class". That's how it all started. Now his Dad and his Mum are talking, discussing and debating... What are you supposed to do when your teenage son told you, "It's not ruling V.S. ruled. You can opt-out."?


Whatever That Is (2002)

The Necessary Stage

"When I looked at the mirror, it was not my reflection that cracked. I, I cracked."

Tracey is 33. She has everything in life - a successful career, and her wedding in two weeks. But she wakes up one morning and decides to go mad. She cancels her wedding, sells her company and tells everyone she will be going to Woodbridge. And for the first time in her life, she is no longer afraid. Because she has nothing left to lose.

Spoilt has not one story but three. The stories that span from 1986 to 2003 chart 

Spoilt (2001)

Conceived and directed by the same person who brought you&nbsp;Lift My Mind,&nbsp;the play set in a cargo lift (as part of The Necessary Stage's&nbsp;Brainstorm [what's that in your head?]&nbsp;in Aug/Sep 1999)! Chong Tze Chien, fulltime playwright with The Necessary Stage cooks up more bizarre situations - this time on a moving bus!

The play stars Michelle Chong (Eating Air), Marianne Wee (numerous Spell#7 and The Necessary Stage plays), Peter Sau (numerous Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble and The Necessary

Is This Our Stop? (2000)

A group of people are cast out of their homelands. They are forced to travel across oceans, through refugee camps and over mountains; some struggle to find their way home, while others desperately look for new lives. A mother who has lost her child, a nun who loses her faith, a soldier forced to kill his buddy, a bride and groom trying to get married... a general who wants to rule the world, and a god who just wants to end it all.&nbsp;


The Exodus (1999)

T:>Works (TheatreWorks)

Case: a major accident on National Day on the PIE.
Casualties: actors from a play entitled PIE.
Suspect: a playwright of the play entitled PIE.

Coincidence or conspiracy? You decide.


Pan Island Expressway (1999)

Set in Singapore in the mid-sixties,&nbsp;Beauty World&nbsp;is a musical melodrama about the adventures of a small town girl in the big city. A mysterious jade pendant brings an innocent young girl to a colourful cabaret in Singapore, where she hopes to locate her long-lost father. Along the way, she meets up with her dotty pen-friend, crosses the path of a vindictive cabaret singer, and learns some heartbreaking truths about love and life (not necessarily in that order). Set to an original score, the comed

Beauty World (1998)

Lao Jiu, the ninth child and only son of the family, is of outstanding intelligence and carries the hopes of his parents and siblings. Sacrifices are made by his family in the fond hopes that he will achieve the honour of academic success. Alas, to his family’s disappointment, he abandons his scholastic pursuits for his love of the traditional art form of hand puppetry.&nbsp;

First staged in English by TheatreWorks in 1993,&nbsp;Lao Jiu&nbsp;has performed to sell-out audiences in Singapore, as well as th

Lao Jiu (1997)

The lives of yesterday's Chinese rickshaw coolics and today's&nbsp;construction workers from India is the central theme of&nbsp;TheatreWorks' Workhorse Afloat.

Under the artistic direction of Ong Keng Sen, Workhorse&nbsp;Afloat explores how circumstances in Singapore have come full&nbsp;circle, by juxtaposing the lonely world of Chinese rickshaw&nbsp;coolies dating back from 1880 to 1940, with the Indian&nbsp;workers presently here.

Although most of us have seen&nbsp;these Indian workers in large&nbsp

Workhorse Afloat (1997)

Video Cast

A lonely young bride finds herself a prisoner of her cold and cruel husband. When a blind old widow offers strange roots that will induce the husband to make her a true "wife," she takes the chance. But she ends up awakening the Naga--king of the Cobras. Will her new-found relationship bring disaster or happiness?

A simple, magical tale based on Indian folklore, brought to life with colour and music.


Naga Mandala (1996)

Devi, a salesgirl at a designer boutique and her colleague Swallow attend a high-class party cum album launch. There Devi meets her old school friend Lavika, now a successful local recording artiste, and her glamorous mother Tina. When Devi lies about her work at the boutique, she finds that she is suddenly more accepted and popular. By the end of the evening, Devi is slow-dancing with Krishna, Singapore's top runner and bachelor of the year.

Trouble begins when lies grow bigger, when friendships are tak

Top of the World (1995)

Asia-in-Theatre Research Centre

William Teo

Macbeth is categorised broadly as one of Shakespeare's Histories. However, unlike the other historical plays, history is not shown as the Grand Mechanism but rather as a nightmare. Whether mechanism or nightmare, both remain different, illustrating the same struggle for power and the crown. The different metaphors reflect different philosophies - history as a mechanism is characterised by its inevitability, whereas the nightmare paralyses and terrifies. In Macbeth, history, as well as crime, is shown throug

The Tragedy of Macbeth (1993)

Dennis Potter's deceptively simple tale relates the activities of 7 seven-year-olds (played by adult actors) at play in a seemingly idyllic and ever-youthful world. The children play, fight and fantasize. Their aggressions, fears, hostilities and rivalries, a microcosm of adult interaction. All the children gang up on the terrified "Donald Duck" who abused by his mother and ridiculed by his peers, plays his own dangerous game of pyromania which ends in tragedy.

The production, The Necessary Stage's first

Blue Remembered Hills (1992)

Three young people — two sisters and a brother — are troubled by fear and guilt, harking back to their past. They decide to return to their childhood home in Kappan Road to encounter the fount of their troubles.

They go back to Kappan Road in the guise of children on horses making a dream journey. Somebody is chasing them, and they go ever deeper into the jungle, looking for something ‘like a temple on a hill’. Riding deeper into the jungle, they see visions, peaceful and fearful, of water babies (‘the c

Three Children (1992)

The Conference of the Birds is the best-known work of Farid Ud-Din Attar, the Persian poet who was born around 1120 in Neishapour, which was also the birthplace of Omar Khayyam. As the name 'Attar' indicates, he was a perfume seller or druggist and combined this with the practice of medicine.

He travelled widely throughout Egypt, Damascus, Mecca, Turkestan and India in the pursuit of knowledge, and his travels gave him a low opinion of most earthly rulers - emphasised in The Conference of the Birds, whos

The Conference of the Birds (1991)

A spicy, mouthwatering dish, garnished with colourful characters. Choo Bee Lian is the owner of a famous fried rice chain. She hopes to retire, but her two daughters, Bee Lee and Bee Hoon, are sworn enemies and refuse to run the business together. A contest is set up to determine the successor of Fried Rice Paradise. The ensuing competition leads to intrigue and staggering revelations, as each character, under heat, imbues Fried Rice Paradise with her own special flavour.


Fried Rice Paradise (1991)

Socrates, the great thinker, is on trial for allegedly corrupting the morals of youth and instigating unrest and dissent amongst students. His prosecutor is Plato, his former disciple, a brilliant scholar and now distinguished statesman. Whose logic prevails? The audience is the ultimate jury.&nbsp;Trial,&nbsp;written in 1986, was first staged by Jurong Junior College.


Trial (1990)

Hua, her brother Chye and friend Reginald, try to find their equilibrium when they return to Singapore after their studies abroad. Friendship and values, conscience and duty no longer balance in the scales back home.&nbsp;One Year Back Home&nbsp;was written in 1977 and first staged by the Experimental Theatre Club in 1980.


One Year Back Home (1990)

M Butterfly&nbsp;is about the&nbsp;tempestuous love affair&nbsp;between a French diplomat and a Chinese&nbsp;Opera actress and&nbsp;has been a sensational hit
on Broadway and the West End.&nbsp;For the&nbsp;Festival, Theatreworks will be mounting&nbsp;an all new production, drawing on talents&nbsp;available in the region.

This promises to be a landmark production&nbsp;and a major step in the development of&nbsp;this energetic young company.&nbsp;


M Butterfly (1990)

Assistant Sound Designer

Mother Courage follows the armies back and forth across a battle-defaced Europe during the Thirty Years War, selling provisions and liquor from her canteen wagon to make a living. One by one, she loses her children to war but will not part with her livelihood - the wagon.


Mother Courage and Her Children (1989)

Two perfect strangers, a salesman and a rich lady, engage in a spontaneous yet intense conversation about their lives while they wait. One suffers from a broken marriage, the other is disillusioned after a breakup in a relationship. From their discussion they come to realise that they are strangely related. What is more interesting is how.


The Waiting Room (1987)

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Centre 42

Neo Kim Seng grew up in Pasir Panjang on Neo Pee Teck Lane, a side road named after his grandfather, until he moved out in 1973.&nbsp;My Grandfather’s Road&nbsp;is a collection of stories of the familial haven that stood along the road, stories that have helped him reconnect with his idyllic childhood and his family’s history. It does not dwell in nostalgia but instead explores how personal stories make us who we are.

The latest iteration of&nbsp;My Grandfather’s Road&nbsp;includes new stories that were 

My Grandfather’s Road (Rhds) 阿爺條路 ～ 兔心龍魂 by Neo Kim Seng

From how the work was created to what audiences saw onstage, the 1988 TheatreWorks production of Three Children was ahead of its time. The project, jointly led by Krishen Jit and Ong Keng Sen, saw the actors put through three months of rigorous training and devising sessions. When Three Children opened on 11 November, audiences and critics lauded the production’s unconventional, nonlinear storytelling and its bold mix of Chinese opera and Western stage techniques.

Thirty years after this landmark product

Loong Seng Onn

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