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TTAAW Report Magazine Volume No. 1

Editor in Chief

The Finger Players

A new day, a new light.  

A maker goes about fixing theatre objects meant for forever archival, every object a glint of his self and of time. Life finds its way through his hands into these objects and back into him again, and little mournings come on like waves – gentle, subdued, but never crushing. His time in the workshop is marked by the sounds of drills starting up, of sandpaper smoothening rough edges, of mallet against surfaces, of bird calls outside the window, of wind, of rain.  

As he counts

Little Mournings (2021)

Lighting Designer

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

A grandmother is dying.
Her grandson is in New York and she’s in Singapore. He refuses to come home and she puts her foot down. She buys him a flat and he buys her a coffin.

A woman and a man are in love.
A third party buys a bed but gets nothing else. Three’s a crowd but no one wants to budge. Does love know no boundaries or is there just too much greed?

A criminal is on the loose.
His father is going berserk. His mother has bought breakfast but no one wants to eat.&nbsp;

The Devil pays all thr

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea (2020)

Everyday existence is a colourless hue. Then a woman transforms into a crow. The woman is a crow, a voyeur and a destabilizing self-loather. Its quest – to peep and mimic, lurk and conceal, deceive and try, to, be. Peepbird&nbsp;is a meeting place between puppetry and movement aesthetics, an exploration of destabilized identities and the state of being colourless.&nbsp;


Peepbird (2020)

A man did not shed a single tear during his mother’s funeral.

He commits an irreversible act, deemed unforgivable under the judicial system.

Witnesses take to the stand, each one’s account as colourful as their personalities, held together by a common thread -&nbsp;the judgement of a man’s soul.

Is this man a lunatic, a sage, a fool, a fiend or a social misfit?

Inspired by the philosophy of absurdism and existentialism, A Fiend’s Diary is the ultimate revelation of a man’s battle against the jud

A Fiend's Diary (2019)

Drama Box

Tanah•Air 水•土：A Play In Two Parts&nbsp;looks at the dispossession and loss of the indigenous Malays and Orang Seletar of Singapore. "Tanah" (land) and "Air" (water) were their homes (Tanah Air) until the arrival of foreign interventions, displacing them from both. The deep sense of loss continues to be felt today.

Tanah&nbsp;is inspired by Isa Kamari’s Duka Tuan Bertakhta. Set in 1819 Singapore, a young girl loses her home on the sea and is forced to come ashore. As she navigates around the various parti

Tanah·Air 水·土: A Play In Two Parts (2019)

Wild Rice

Ivan Heng is one of Singapore's most acclaimed actors. Glen Goei is one of Singapore's most celebrated directors. Together, they bring to life one of Singapore theatre's most iconic characters: Emily Gan, an abandoned girl who overcomes all odds to emerge as the matriarch of a distinguished Peranakan household.&nbsp;

Evoking the golden age of Straits-Chinese culture from the 1930s, this new production promises to be the most immersive version of Stella Kon's enduring classic yet. Step into our theatre an

Emily of Emerald Hill (2019)

Jeanette Peh — a highly-westernised Singaporean junior college valedictorian — decides to abandon law school to follow her dreams of studying acting in London, where she will also hopefully find her occidental soulmate.

On arrival however, she is dismayed to find that her teacher and classmates labels her as one of the “Asian students”. She adopts a British accent and corrects the British students’ grammar well-meaningly, but that doesn’t seem to boost her popularity. At least she’s doing well in school…

Forked (2019)

Checkpoint Theatre

A crisis tests the resolve of the international staff of a refugee camp. Can they stay sane, stay alive, and stay strong when their minds, bodies, and spirits are called upon to do the impossible?

Written by Huzir Sulaiman,&nbsp;Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner&nbsp;is a&nbsp;multidisciplinary theatrical work set against the backdrop of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, investigating the realities of the aid industry. With sensitivity and nuance, Huzir delves beneath media portrayals to disco

Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner (2019)

A flower evokes…

life / death
fragility / strength
submission / resistance

FLOWERS&nbsp;is an experiential installation that investigates the patriarchal violence around and within us. Step in and let us (re)consider our lived experiences as men and women in relation to this violence. How does it seek to control and violate, and how might we resist and hope?


FLOWERS (2019)

Collaborator

Emergency Stairs

How can one survive and love in a broken world? How do we get along with ourselves?

Inspired by British playwright Sarah Kane’s last work&nbsp;4.48 Psychosis, Young Artist Award recipient Liu Xiaoyi presents FOUR FOUR EIGHT, a brand-new work that leads you into a world, a social construct, where every audience member becomes a participant in a space of gathering and camaraderie; anchored in a place of urban loneliness – the bar.

Taking place in and around an actual bar, the perceptions of individual a

Four Four Eight (2019)

Creator

Designer

For decades, Singapore's oldest flea market in Sungei Road was home to a community that made a living out of peddling their wares under the sweltering mid-day sun. In the one square metre of space allocated to each vendor, what was junk to some was treasure to others.&nbsp;

In July 2017, the Sungei Road Market was shut down by the authorities. In one fell swoop, 80 years of heritage and haggling were erased.&nbsp;

In the weeks before and after the market's closure, playwright 三木 Sanmu interviewed doze

One Metre Square: Voices From Sungei Road (2018)

A seller peddles a great and undiscovered artwork allegedly painted by Adolf Hitler himself. The controversial but artistically ground-breaking work could potentially shock the art world and rewrite history. Behind this art work lies a greater and incredible story about the seller’s Grandfather -&nbsp;a Jewish simpleton who was mistakenly tried as a Nazi war criminal for owning this Hitler painting.

Hoping to authenticate the work, raise its value and restore her grandfather’s good name, the seller hawks

Framed, by Adolf (2018)

A literary hermit with unfulfilled ambitions is abused by a corrupt official.

A shady foreign lady seeks to rent a room to run an equally shady massage parlor.

A middle-aged widower hires an alluring tutor to help his dim-witted son, who has yet to graduate after more than 20 years.

In a house with an expired lease,&nbsp;
A profanity-spewing dog
And a racy fox spirit idol&nbsp;
Bear witness to all that transpires

Man or ghost? Fox or demon?
Was it all real or false? Truth or illusion?

Ins

Citizen Dog (2018)

The Theory of Relativity tells us: If a car moves at the speed of light, time will stand still, and space will fall away.

In the hauntingly quiet Esplanade B2 carpark, two men meet. One is Zhang Jun, possessing in him 600 years of Kun Opera history. The other is George Chan, trained in musicals, the centuries-old Western art form. As the prince of Kunqu and leading actor of musicals face each other, each with their own histories and cultures etched in their bodies, what do they say? What can’t they hold 

Einstein in the Carpark (2018)

Devisor

Lighting Artist

Intercultural Theatre Institute

Grover's Corners is an idyllic and unremarkable town. But everything around it is quietly changing: industrialisation and capitalism are on the rise and World War I is on the horizon. Will these changes weaken the ties that bind the townsfolk together?

Our Town&nbsp;is an intercultural interpretation of Wilder's insightful and moving portrait of small town life. 80 years after it was first performed, find out what&nbsp;Our Town&nbsp;can tell us about living in a multicultural, multilingual, modern world.

Our Town (2017)

In The Spirits Play, five Japanese spirits – a General, a Man, a Mother, a Girl and a Poet – recollect their life experiences in the Second World War. They are thrown into turmoil in their attempt to understand the war and its atrocities that were inflicted upon them not only by the foreign enemy but also by their own government and army. A notable work in Singapore theatre, The Spirits Play poignantly depicts the agony, guilt and turmoil left in the aftermath of war.


The Spirits Play (2017)

“When is life worth living; when is death worth celebrating?”

The notion of death and reincarnation has fascinated mankind’s consciousness, religions and literature since time immemorial.

Poop! chronicles the aftermath of a suicide: A GRANDMOTHER bargains with divine powers to release her SON’S soul from hell. Failing which, she brings him home; she takes over the reins of bringing up her GRANDDAUGHTER, while keeping her DAUGHTER-IN-LAW at bay, saving the GRANDDAUGHTER all for herself She tries to ins

Poop! (2017)

To escape her fate in China, Swee Leng and her friends sail across oceans to find hope and a better life in Nanyang. Upon their arrival, the women earn their keep as helpers to the men at construction sites, making a name for themselves as Samsui women. However, repeated taunts from people around them as well as conflicts between Swee Leng and her friends threaten their solidarity and friendship.

Friends become foes and family turns into enemies, until a fire at Bukit Ho Swee brings them together again. 

Samsui Women: One Brick at a Time (2017)

Roots is the winner of The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2013 for Best Production and Best Script. Written, directed and performed by Oliver Chong from The Finger Players, Roots centres on his journey in search of his ancestral home in China. With only the scantiest clues to go on, he struggles to uncover a family secret which may or may not be true. Fixated on finding the truth, Chong's multilingual monologue skilfully and humorously portrays the different characters encountered on his increasingly co

Roots (2017)

Singapore Repertory Theatre

If&nbsp;The Book of Mormon&nbsp;and&nbsp;Avenue Q&nbsp;had a baby, this would be it!

Troubled teen, Jason, is coping with his father’s recent death and is forced to join his mother, Margery, in her Sunday School puppet group. When this God-fearing boy discovers that his sock puppet has a life of its own, all hell breaks loose. Literally.

In this provocative dark comedy, Jason’s satanic sock puppet named Tyrone shows the children, the minister and the school bully who’s really in charge. Wickedly scand

Hand to God (2017)

Itsy Bitsy Spider has galvanised his eight-legged army to terrorise the characters in the nursery rhyme world. In comes an unlikely hero, a grandfather who’s looking for his grandson. In his search, Grandpa is reacquainted with familiar and colourful friends from the nursery rhymes that he used to sing to his grandson. Unwittingly, he ends up being their hero, the chosen one against the spiders. To save his newfound friends from the eight-legged terror, an epic war ensues between the spiders, and his assemb

ITSY - The Musical (2017)

Ashley and Daphne are Secondary 5 Normal Academic students struggling to cope with the pressure to perform. When idealistic teacher Sarah Hew joins the school, Ashley and Daphne find the courage to face their hidden fears, hurts and dreams. The education system tries to build people up – but what happens when it breaks people down? Sharply written and profoundly affecting,&nbsp;Normal&nbsp;explores the world of students who fail to fit the mould.

Normal&nbsp;premiered in 2015 to a sold-out run with audie

Normal (2017)

You will see no play.

Four nameless performers, in a space without boundaries. No plot, no love nor sorrow, no more roller coaster narrative. And the stage does not represent another place. What then shall happen in theatre? When all pretence is stripped, is everything then genuine?

In 1966, Austrian playwright Peter Handke rose to prominence with Offending the Audience, a play that challenged perceptions of theatre and rocked the establishment of the day.

Five decades later, this special Huayi com

Offending the Audience (2017)

Simultaneously a crash course in, and a love letter to SingLit, Between the Lines: Rant &amp; Rave II takes you on an odyssey of how the English-language literature scene in Singapore has evolved through the decades: from the literature during our post-colonial days, to the advent of book retail giant Borders in the 1990s, to the literary activism that have galvanised writers and readers today.

Relive the conversations and events that made history with actors Serene Chen and Jean Ng as they take on the r

Between the Lines: Rant & Rave II (2016)

Richard Wagner Association

OperaViva Limited

Wagner based the spooky plot of Der Fliegende Holländer on the legend of a Dutch sea captain who vows to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.

Condemned by the devil to be endlessly at sea, he may land once every seven years and search for the faithful woman whose true love will be his only salvation.

During a furious storm, Norwegian sea captain Daland has taken shelter with his ship when the deathly masts of the Flying Dutchman’s vessel loom nearby. Daland agrees that the Dutchman will follow him home 

The Flying Dutchman (2016)

What if Hitler were Jekyll and Hyde? History and fiction collide in Starring Hitler as Jekyll and Hyde. Borrowing characters and themes from literary classic – Jekyll and Hyde, the history of Jewish holocaust is retold in a new tale about Jekyll, a young painter by day, who turns into Hitler by night. Hitler terrorises the populace, subjecting them to his will. To build up his country, the non-ˇnatives are murdered and disposed of by him to preserve the blood and lineage of his countrymen. Meanwhile, Jekyll

Starring Hitler as Jekyll & Hyde (2016)

Huzir Sulaiman

Claire Wong

Spontaneous and fiery. Sad and beautiful. Seductive and&nbsp;heartbreaking. The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco is an extraordinary&nbsp;love story between one man and the art of flamenco. Written&nbsp;by Huzir Sulaiman and directed by Claire Wong, this seductive&nbsp;play revolves around Antonio Vargas, one of the world’s leading&nbsp;flamenco dancers and choreographers.

Born in Casablanca to a family of French-speaking Spanish Jews, the 75-year&nbsp;old Vargas has lived around the world, including Morocc

The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco (2016)

The Necessary Stage

Rosnah is a young Malay Muslim woman who leaves home for the first time to study in London. As she navigates her new environment with determination, she forges new connections with friends who differ from her in all respects - personality, race and religion.

Is she able to balance tradition and liberal ideas without losing her identity?&nbsp;

One of The Necessary Stage's well-loved early plays by Resident Playwright and Cultural Medallion recipient Haresh Sharma,&nbsp;Rosnah&nbsp;is a monodrama about 

Rosnah (2016)

Adapted from a classical Chinese epic, Journey to the West: Treasures from the Dragon Palace is the story of Sun Wukong the Monkey King, his master Xuanzang, and his friend Pigsy. Follow the powerful but rebellious Monkey King as he goes on a quest to hunt down the perfect weapon to fend off evil.

Watch the legendary story of the Monkey King come alive through an array of traditional hand puppets and puppetry techniques.


Journey to the West: Treasures from the Dragon Palace (2016)

A hotel in Singapore is opened at the turn of the century, when the island is still a jewel in the British Crown. It serves as an exotic pit stop for travelers who wish to explore the glittering expanse of the British Empire.&nbsp;

Each day, new faces appear and swiftly disappear – guests and staff alike. Every ten years, we check into the hotel and meet its residents. As Singapore morphs from British colony to Malaysian state to sovereign nation, its denizens experience profound and dramatic changes. We

Hotel (2016)

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Two of the most exciting directors from Japan and Singapore, Shigeki Nakano and Chong Tze Chien, inject their bold and invigorating interpretations of the modern noh (a form of theatre orginating in the 14th century) classic, The Damask Drum, by Yukio Mishima.

Regarded as the father of modern noh drama, Mishima’s adaptation from the original tale by 14th century playwright Zeami Motokiyo, centres around an old man's infatuation with a beautiful neighbour. This results in his suicide when the latter and h

Drums (2016)

Two sisters have only each other to count on

When their mother frowns and throws a hissy fit

The two sisters have always supported each other

Until one throws in the towel and calls it a day

Inheritance is a simple and moving story about two sisters and their mother

When nothing binds them together anymore


Inheritance (2016)

A multi-disciplinary site-specific production featuring international puppeteers and designers from Hong Kong, China and Singapore! Traditions and modernity meet in this site-specific production that takes audience through a corridor of memories and stories performed by Master Puppeteers from China, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as Sound and Visual Artists. This eclectic mix of artists is specially picked for this project to create an immersive multi-disciplinary theatrical journey that articulates the n

The Collectors (2016)

In&nbsp;The Spirits Play, five Japanese spirits -&nbsp;a General, a Man, a Mother, a Girl and a Poet -&nbsp;recall their life experience in the Second World War. They are collectively thrown into turmoil in the process of recollection, and in their wish to “make sense” of the war and its atrocities inflicted upon them, not only by the foreign enemy but also by their own government and army. A notable work in Singapore theatre, The Spirits Play&nbsp;poignantly depicts the agony, guilt and turmoil that occur 

The Spirits Play (2015)

“Eat something. Most of the time we need things even before we understand why we want them.”

A wife travels with her dead husband to his hometown in an unknown place for a final meal with the family. Elsewhere, a woman leaves food outside her door for her lost cat but it is consumed by something else. Yet elsewhere, a mother guides her daughter one last time in the preparation of a meal. In the aftermath of great loss, each person feels the pangs of a spiritual hunger that may only be satiated by the rit

SEED (2015)

Hotel (2015)

To escape her fate in China, Swee Leng, together with her friends who were in the same plight as her, sail across oceans to find hope and livelihood in Nanyang. Upon their arrival, the women manage to earn their keep as helpers to the men at construction sites, eventually making a name for themselves as Samsui women.

However, in the process, their solidarity and friendship are threatened by the repeated taunts from people around them as well as conflicts between Swee Leng and her friends. Friends become 

Samsui Women: One Brick at a Time (2015)

The Theatre Practice

A new devised play featuring a lineup of veteran &amp; new theatre performers.

In 1969, Kuo Pao Kun wrote and directed&nbsp;The Struggle,&nbsp;which was banned by the government two weeks before its opening. The artistic team was forced to replace the performance with poetry recital and skits.&nbsp;The Struggle&nbsp;remains Kuo Pao Kun's only script yet to be staged. It reflects upon the social turmoil resulting from rapid urban development and people's struggles against these changes back in the 70s.&nb

The Struggle: Years Later (2015)

The day starts with a flush from the toilet and ends with the pronouncement of the clock ticking loudly. He often wakes up to the bus arriving and boards precariously while making tea, only to come short of reaching his destination because the house phone starts ringing. I see him open the drawer many times to spy on listless commuters swarming on and off trains during rush hour. I hear him sit quietly near the living room windows, waiting patiently in line for his turn to order food. He turns on the fan an

ONETWOSIX (2015)

Conceptualizer

Director

Invisibility is a poignant tale about alienation and the search for meaning in modern urban society — various personas on the margins of society seeking to connect with others, in juxtaposition with a character searching for the secret to make himself invisible.

Dissecting various classic texts and injecting new writings from the cast, this production examines the different kinds of solitude that make up the human condition today.

Almost two decades since Invisibility first made its debut in Mandarin,

Invisibility (2014)

With only the scantiest clues to go on, a man undertakes a humourous and serendipitous search for his ancestral home in China to uncover a family secret which may or may not be true. This man, so fixated on finding out the truth, may or may not find what he is searching for in the first place. Director, playwright and actor, Oliver Chong, delivers a monologue about finding oneself in a strange world he calls home.


Roots (2014)

Turn By Turn We Turn is a sweeping epic about the lives and fates of members in a traditional chinese hand puppetry troupe from 1920s China to the present day. Holding steadfastly to their craft, traditions, beliefs and one another in the face of civil and world wars, political strife, changing times and tastes, the puppeteers survive one ordeal after another, testing their mettle and resolve to perform, entertain and preserve the lineage of puppetry.


Turn By Turn We Turn (2014)

In war, there are no winners. One is either killed as an innocent bystander caught in a cross fire, loses a loved one or becomes morally scarred as a consequence of our aggressive actions.

War makes a victim out of everyone, even those who start the conflict.

This play celebrates and honours the men and women who stood up for their beliefs despite the difficult and trying times. Unlikely heroes emerge out of the extraordinary circumstances. The pages of history are dotted with stories of these brave s

My Friend, A Japanese Soldier (2014)

1960. Pulau Senang, located 15 miles south of Singapore, was used in a bold experiment, led by Superintendent Daniel Dutton. He believed he could reform the inmates through labour and abolished the use of arms to police them. Over the next three years, the detainees transformed the island into a jail without bars, as they constructed the prison settlement from scratch. However, things went horribly wrong on 12 July 1963, when a bloody riot initiated by the detainees led to the death of four officers and the

Senang (2014)

Artists, past and present theatre reviewers and different personalities from the arts scene “convene” in discussions that retrace the seminal events in Singapore theatre history. Rant and Rave dramatises some of the most memorable debates pertaining to the development of Singapore theatre from as far back as the 80s, re-enacting some of the most fiery dialogues about the arts in the last 30 years. Archival materials culled from various newspaper publications are used to create these discussions on art and s

Rant & Rave (2014)

Nine Years Theatre

Bosom buddies for the past 15 years, Serge, Marc and Yvan’s friendship is put to the test when Serge decides to pay a ridiculously high price for a modern painting – a white canvas with a few faint, white lines. Tension ensues when Marc calls the painting “a piece of white shit” and Serge decides to defend it stubbornly. Their differences in taste quickly degenerates into a relentless attack on each other’s failures in life. The absurdity of the situation escalates when Yvan, who is caught in the middle, va

Art (2014)

HuM Theatre

Nagamandala (2014)

Backstabbing, under the table dealings and double-crossing – it’s just another day in the world of real estate.

Housing agents, new and old immigrants are fighting for properties in land scarce Singapore. Someone has to give in, somehow. Who bends the rules and breaks the law?

Two tenants share their rental woes, shedding light on unscrupulous house owners and realtors.

It’s one thing to survive, and another to live.


Citizen Pig (2013)

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


Watch This Space: The Last Chief Minister of Singapore (2013)

Lighting Design Mentor

Legend tells of 24 sons and daughters in ancient Chinese times who took parental respect to exceptional extremes, even wrestling tigers and weeping to make plants grow for their parents. Here, three of the top tales are adapted by celebrated local puppet theatre company The Finger Players.


Tales of Filial Piety (2013)

Adapted from a classical Chinese epic, Journey to the West: Treasures from the Dragon Palace is the story of Sun Wukong the Monkey King, his master Xuanzang, and his friend Pigsy. Follow the powerful but rebellious Monkey King as he goes on a quest around the Earth and the Heavens to hunt down the perfect weapon to fend off evil.

Watch the legendary story of the Monkey King come alive through an array of traditional hand puppets and puppetry techniques. The audience will be invited to participate in an i

Journey to the West: Treasures from the Dragon Palace (2013)

A daughter faces her transvestite father’s impending death. However, her last lap with him does not come smoothly, as she unearths his suppressed secret which wreaks emotional hell on the parent-and-child relationship.

It is not the father’s penchant to cross dress that drives a wedge between the two — that is open knowledge. It is something else.

While the horrified daughter struggles with the emotions that run riot through her, her father, trying desperately to discern the meaning of life, is greete

The Book of Living and Dying (2013)

The Book of Living and Dying (2012)

A supposedly usual party reveals some intricate secrets; and an evening of heavy drinking exposes inherent human flaws. It all starts with a young couple being invited to the home of an elderly professor, and there they find themselves somehow embroiled in the martial conflict of their host and his wife. Under the influence of alcohol, the two couples get caught up in a verbal warfare, hurling humiliation and abuses at each other. The absurd game they play unmasks their true emotions which have so far been 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013)

two remnants of a day
yesterday and tomorrow

day in, day out... unchanging
lingering in between
intimate, yet distant

One Fine Day
wherefore the reminiscing?

Perchance the present

tacit,

breathing,

looking within.

ONE FINE DAY is the latest multi-disciplinary performance by The Finger Players and the same collective of award-winning designers and performers who had helmed the visually charged productions –suitCASES and 0501. Come witness the transformation of a black box theatre int

One Fine Day (2013)

An intense midnight quarrel leads to the murder of a man. Witnesses take the stand as his 16-year-old son is tried for homicide. With all testimonies against the boy, his fate now hangs by a thread as twelve jurors find themselves thick in the throes of rendering the final verdict.

In the stifling heat of the jury room, twelve personalities will clash in a bout of logic and intuition, reason and conscience. Caught between conflicting personal obsessions and prejudices, will the jurors emerge as defenders

Twelve Angry Men (2013)

A man goes in search of his hometown in China with only the scantiest clues to go on. His grandmother could only remember the name of a distant relative, who may or may not be alive in China.

With only that name, the man trawls through the internet for information and zeros in on a place which may or may not be his grandfather’s hometown. The man, so fixated on finding out the truth, may or may not find what he is searching for in the first place.

Director, playwright and actor, Oliver Chong, delivers

Roots (2012)

Rant & Rave (2012)

Nezha is an extraordinary child born with tremendous strength and special gifts. Much loved by all in his hometown, Nezha has a doting mother and strict father who wishes he would put his talent to good use. One day, Nezha fights and defeats the son of the Dragon King. This angers the Dragon King and he sends a raging flood to wipe out Nezha's hometown. Nezha's father tries to fend off the Dragon King but fails. To save his parents and home, Nezha sacrifices himself. This act of bravery and filial piety mov

The Legend of Nezha (2012)

Project Mending Sky: US&nbsp;is the final installment of Drama Box's Community Art Project on Environment. In the finale, we come together as a community and go through an experiential journey to discover/re-discover our connection with the environment.&nbsp;

We'll journey through (over 1.5km) the now defunct Bukit Timah Railway Station to "search" for the legendary Bukit Timah Monkey Man, starting from the bustling city into the darkness of the forest.&nbsp;


Project Mending Sky: Us (2012)

Trapped in an unknown time, in an unknown corner afar, the only things five unknown souls can recall are the great uncertainties of their correlation.&nbsp;

They embark on a retracing of mutual identities but soon derail into pondering over the state of their beings. Is this merely an attempt to provide meaning to their transient forms - however arbitrary?&nbsp;

They start to reflect, and try to salvage whatever is left of their memory, while yearning for a glimpse of a beacon of hope somewhere afar.&

Afar (2012)

Peter Sau

“Hello, my personas. How have you been, best friends and worst foes from the past? Oh fabulous. You all have been lurking deep inside. Put on your make-up, dress up your ties. Lights up! There’s an audience watching, so let’s bring them along for a ride. Grab hold, my song and dance. Think twice, my words and actions. Watch out, my facades and emotions. Be careful, my truth and lies. But hang on, who is the thespian in real life? I take my bow now. Just tell me when to laugh and when to cry.”

In a live s

Tell Me When To Laugh and When to Cry (2012)

"MY ONLY LOVE SPRUNG FROM MY ONLY HATE!" - Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5

Fall in love again with ROMEO &amp; JULIET, the world's greatest love story, as it is brought to life in a bold, exuberant and sensual production by W!LD RICE.&nbsp;

In a city ripped apart by the hatred between their feuding families, two young people fall desperately in love. Defying their parents’ wishes and throwing all caution to the wind, they marry in secret, risking everything to be together

Ivan Heng, renowned for his innovati

Romeo & Juliet (2012)

In war, there are no winners. One is either killed as an innocent bystander caught in a cross fire, loses a loved one, or becomes morally scarred as a consequence of our aggressive actions.

War makes a victim out of everyone, even those who start the conflict.

This play celebrates and honours the men and women who stood up for their beliefs despite the difficult and trying times. Unlikely heroes emerge out of extraordinary circumstances. The pages of history are dotted with stories of these brave soul

My Friend, A Japanese Soldier (2012)

An elderly professor, George, and his wife, Martha, invite university newcomer, Nick, and his wife, Honey, over to their place for a late night party. As the night passes, they find themselves caught in the middle of a marital conflict. Fuelled by alcohol and using language as weapon, they are compelled to blemish, hurt, seduce and manipulate, in order to wound their opponents. In the end, mad lies become their only hope. How will this night of torment end?

Truth and illusion - can we tell the difference

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2012)

Kartini and Juliana are not your typical mother-daughter pair - one loud and overbearing, the other straitlaced and on the threshold of entering politics. Together, they are Gemuk Girls and proud of it. When they receive shocking news that Kartini's father had been detained in the 1960s, the floodgates of the family's past are thrown open. Can a family survive as they struggle to reconcile the past with the present? Will Kartini and Juliana continue to be Gemuk Girls?&nbsp;


Gemuk Girls (2011)

Adapted from a classical Chinese epic,&nbsp;Journey to the West: Treasures from the Dragon Palace&nbsp;is the story of Sun Wukong the Monkey King, his master Xuanzang, and his friend Pigsy. Follow the powerful but rebellious Monkey King as he goes on a quest around the Earth and the Heavens to hunt down the perfect weapon to fend off evil.

Watch the legendary story of the Monkey King come alive through an array of traditional hand puppets and puppetry techniques. The audience will be invited to participa

Journey to the West: Treasures from the Imperial Palace (2011)

Who is she?

She claims she is Judith Mayo - a victim of civil war in South Africa.

Rebecca, Singaporean housewife, objects.&nbsp;"Judith is an internet scammer", she exclaims,&nbsp;"she has cheated me of my life savings!"

"But Rebecca doesn't exist", the police claims,&nbsp;"an RC member made her up".

"The RC member, Lily, is indignant.&nbsp;She presents her case to her MP. "Rebecca and Judith are real", she screams.

What is the truth?
Is Lily lying?
Or are the sufferings and injustice she 

To Whom It May Concern (2011)

"It’s only when you pull her dress over her head that you can begin to understand the weight of silk on skin; to divine, in the lines left by the seams on her bare shoulders, how you will leave, and when, and with what rehearsed words of deep regret."

He’s an arbiter of elegance at the end of the road, rewinding a life of cold beauty and harsh truths. His distractions are many: the erotic allure of women; neat whiskey in cut crystal; the matchless charms of a well-cut suit. But what happens when memories

The Weight of Silk on Skin (2011)

While history often celebrates men, HERstory&nbsp;is&nbsp;a tribute to&nbsp;Singapore’s forgotten women in the 50s and 60s. Inspired by&nbsp;the women of that generation, Otto Fong tells the story of a&nbsp;tenacious woman with an unfulfilled dream.

She was a young girl with a beautiful voice and a love for&nbsp;singing. Embroiled in the politics of that era, this young&nbsp;woman was forced to give up the chance to pursue her love&nbsp;in choral singing, while struggling to keep her family together&nbsp

HERstory (2011)

Traditions & Editions Theatre Circus

A circus. Low down and out...
A story about love beyond boundaries and an ultimate fight for hope.
But, will it be 'happily ever after' like all fairytales? Maybe not... Maybe...
Can we continue to fight? What does it takes to fight?
How far are you willing to go to fight for what you believe?
You are living in Today Land... How do you want your Tomorrow Land to be?

Do you still dream? How long have you not been dreaming?
Where are your dreams?
In the country of Shadows, things are (almost) perfec

The Juggler's Tale (2011)

“Master said… in our world, there are two levels: one that is above us, where the gods and deities, heroes and emperors roam. The other is the level below, where we are. All that the audience pays and wants to see is right above our heads. They are not interested in what goes on below.”

Turn By Turn We Turn is a sweeping epic about the lives and fates of members in a traditional chinese hand puppetry troupe from 1920s China to the present day. Holding steadfastly to their craft, traditions, beliefs and o

Turn By Turn We Turn (2011)

A foreign journalist is taken to task after writing some objectionable articles. A university exchange student tries to organise a forum on campus and encounters obstacles.&nbsp;

The lives of these unlikely individuals meet and intertwine in The Necessary Stage's latest production. Characters clash, tensions run high, and truth is questioned. Can we turn back time and return to a harmonious past?

Who is allowed to speak out for what they believe? Do we welcome the views of foreigners? Or should they '

Balek Kampong (2011)

A Group of People

A Note Went Off In My Head (2011)

To truly love a land, one must first unearth the beauty buried in its sorrows.

On a strange and yet familiar city-island, a group of travellers drift about, but are ever-so ready to fulfil their obligations in life. They breathe but they can’t fill the void within. A howl is heard from afar, sensual and primitive. The travellers embark on a journey in search of this calling.

suitCASES is a multidisciplinary performance which attempts to unravel the secrets of our lands. Expect surprises.


suitCASES (2010)

Former lovers Una and Ray meet face-to-face for the first time in 15 years. A chance picture in a magazine has led her back to him. But is it for answers, reconciliation or revenge?

What follows is a tightly-plotted series of twists and turns that will have you at the edge of your seat. Wielding words like a scalpel, Harrower peels away the layers to expose the conflicting emotions that lie at the core of our human hearts.

From the time of Adam and Eve, we have been fascinated by that which is forbidd

Blackbird (2010)

Poop!&nbsp;chronicles the aftermath of a suicide: A GRANDMOTHER bargains with divine powers to release her SON’S soul from hell. Failing which, she brings him home; she takes over the reins of bringing up her GRANDDAUGHTER, while keeping her DAUGHTER-IN-LAW at bay, saving the GRANDDAUGHTER all for herself She tries to instill in her GRANDDAUGHTER that death is merely a joke, that there’s nothing to cry about as she takes her on a mind trip towards the underworld and purgatory — set against an all-too-famili

Poop! (2010)

spell#7

Combining traditional storytelling with theatrical experiment,&nbsp;Epic Poem of Malaya&nbsp;presents a kaleidoscopic vision of a society in flux. In a constantly shifting stage environment, a multi-generational cast unfolds an expansive, big-hearted story of Singapore seen from the sea.

A boy leaves Singapore for life on the South China Sea. He loves it, but history has other ideas. In a 1956 painting by the artist Chua Mia Tee, a passionate young man is declaiming a vision of the future; and there isn’

Epic Poem of Malaya (2010)

This is the story of Pek Har, Ghek Huay and Danae: 3 ordinary women and their ordinary lives. Except that when seen up close, an ‘ordinary’ life is far from. Instead, it is complex, confusing, unexpected, painfully funny, and, yes, quite extraordinary.

Written by NUS undergraduate Faith Ng, under the mentorship of Huzir Sulaiman, wo(men) is a funny and poignant portrayal of a ‘normal’ HDB-dwelling Singaporean Hokkien family, trying their best to survive family secrets and family ties.

Directed by Clai

wo(men) (2010)

An elegy of dehumanization.
A game of torment that never ends.&nbsp;

In a period of constant change, seven Singaporeans transform into strange beings with keratin kernels, abruptly altering all their relationships with kith and kin.&nbsp;

Inspired by Czech writer Franz Kafka's bizarre short stories about transformation and alienation -&nbsp;The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist&nbsp;and&nbsp;A Report to an Academy&nbsp;-&nbsp;K&nbsp;was originally written by Goh Boon Teck in 1996. This interpretation, a

K (2010)

Cake Theatrical Productions

Man: This breath. See? Can you see it? This breath. Stop. [Tries to hold his breath.] But it escapes. Willful breath. You are my master. I am your slave.

The man is restless. One minute he is in a barren wasteland, the next he is in a public toilet in the city, the next he's sitting on a rock with a book, the next he's dragging body bags across endless dust. The man is restless. He wants to disappear. There is also a fisherman and a woman of great disrepute. They live and interact with the man. They know

Invisibility / Breathing (2010)

Cat, Lost &amp; Found finds its charm in the little things that most of us wouldn’t give a second look. The story about a salesman who falls in love with an usher in a movie theatre is a modern day fairy tale that has weird and wonderful characters permeating the stage. A salesman falls in love with the usher who is besotted with a stray cat in the cinema. Meanwhile, the hero of the movie showing in the theatre loses the plot and enters real life to find his brother’s murderer, leaving his hapless wife wait

Cat, Lost & Found (2009)

Dear countrymen,
Why war?
Why terror?
Why are you killing?

Change from you or change the world?
For freedom?
For liberation?
Do we have freedom in this free world?

I died many times in each war,
You mourned for me
You prayed for my soul
You lit up the candle for me
I am reborn again
You wished long life for me
but... it is a universal shame.

- Noushad M


Creative Lab (2009)

The world of spirits is a world of flux.

Five post-war personas in a state of limbo gather at a deserted place.

Searching for a way home, they stop only to hear each other’s poignant tales of war and loss, endeavors and bygone dreams.

Soon, haunting memories of guilt and pain are unveiled and they realize they are tangled to each other in their choices and consequences.

With their relationship to each other now clear, they unleash a series of questions about the sense and senselessness of war.


The Spirits Play (2009)

NUS Stage

According to legend, three sacred Guardians of Earth kept it in balance.

Let down by humans,&nbsp;they resolve to stand back and watch nature run its own course.&nbsp;

Day by day, the world turns colder.

The citizens kept on their consumption and looked ahead, self-absorbed.

But Earth is ceasing on Sunday.

With everyone chipping in,&nbsp;a couple gets busy for their wedding.

Soon to realize, the end of the world also falls on that big day. Full destruction is on its way.


Sun Day (2009)

One lives out of her tattered suitcase, drifting from place to place. Another, a wife and mother devoted to her family, is torn by an unquenchable desire to be free. A third, haunted by requited love, yearns to embark on a new life. All three are runaways, but are they truly free?

Whispers recreates the emotional journeys of three women who have run away only to rediscover the long-suppressed whispers of the heart.

Whispers is an unconventional, non-linear play, featuring monologues with traditional a

Lim Woan Wen

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