Intercultural Theatre Institute

An unspeakable tragedy has struck a quiet small town. To restore order, justice, and inner peace, the law compels the victims to get their hands dirty - but who will be held accountable?Performed by the ITI graduating cohort of 2023, The Chair is an original work that raises questions on individual and collective responsibility, grief, and the desperate, at times absurd pursuit of justice in an unjust world. Who has the right to decide? When is justice served? What do we owe to each other in the balancing o

The Chair (2023)

Director

Set Designer

Jean Ng

Li Xie

Joavien Ng

The School is a participatory performance, taking place across multiple sites in Stamford Arts Centre. Step into The School, put on the uniform, and join fellow participants on a series of communal assemblies, group lessons, solo journeys, unexpected assignments, and strange encounters. Just like school as we think we know it, yet nothing like it at all.The middle of the skyWhere is that?In between the two edges of the sky.Where is the edge of the sky?The butterfly has gone looking,Like an echo on our death

The School (2023)

Co-Creator

Emergency Stairs

A group of students embarked on a journey of reform and transformation to create their ideal school, with their individual and shared hopes, anxieties, reflections and doubts.Why are they doing it? What are they envisioning? What are their blind spots? What are the possible consequences? When all is said and done, are their dreams simply one touch away from dust – perceived as nothing but self-serving, whimsical projections of naivete? Or could these aspirational endeavours, just possibly, hint at a glint o

Dream School (2022)

Devisor

Presented by Intercultural Theatre Institute

A new performance-cum-workshop by Li Xie
Devised &amp; performed by ITI’s 2021 graduating cohort

What happens when a community’s only toilet is taken away?
How does it feel to be helpless in the face of such adversity?
Is there hope for a community in shambles to overcome their differences and work together?

Devised by ITI’s 2021 graduating cohort under veteran theatre practitioner Li Xie’s direction,&nbsp;RevoLOOtion&nbsp;is an original production th

RevoLOOtion (2021)

Facilitator

ArtsWok Collaborative

Created by veteran theatre practitioners, this participatory theatre piece seeks to explore the conditions, challenges and support required by those living in poverty. Participants are in turn, invited to unpack and question each other’s beliefs and assumptions.

Through this process, all of us have to make difficult and life-changing decisions together as a community. How do we respond?


The Class Room (2019)

Creator

The Finger Players

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)

Cast

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)

Adaptation

Drama Box

It Won't Be Too Long asks important questions&nbsp;about living, dying, thriving and surviving in a&nbsp;country where space is limited and precious.&nbsp;How do we create or reclaim a sense of space&nbsp;that allows us to debate and dream, learn and&nbsp;live, recall and retrieve what we have lost?&nbsp;What forces are at work in shaping our space,&nbsp;and when is it worth contesting the dominant&nbsp;uses of space? Is there space for a shared&nbsp;heterotopia, or are we confined by a utopia&nbsp;defined 

It Won't Be Too Long: The Lesson (2015)

The Theatre Practice

In the theatre. On the stage.&nbsp;
He speaks not a word.
She barely moves.&nbsp;

The performer vocalizes her thoughts. She questions / whispers / blabbers / murmurs / shouts / moans / complains / lectures / commands / englightens. What is the relationship between inside and outside the theatre, seeing and being seen, a performer and an audience?

What is performance? What is a performer? What is an audience? What is theatre? What is art? What is life? Finally, what is existence?

The Theatre Pract

FLUID (2014)

Creative Participant

How do we lead a carefree life?

Many spend a lifetime pondering over this, or perhaps attempt to find the answer through the reading of the classic text,&nbsp;Zhuang Zi.&nbsp;Named after the author, Zhuang Zi was an influential Chinese philosopher who advocated self-cultivation, unwavering peace, being in harmony with the natural flow of life, and the pursuit of spiritual freedom.

His ideas have left a profound influence on Chinese culture.&nbsp;Wanderer-Seeker: A Trek Around My Room&nbsp;relooks at t

Wanderer-Seeker: A Trek Around My Room (2013)

News Busters!&nbsp;is making a comeback to the community, with its signature dose of satirical humour!

Conceptualised by&nbsp;Li Xie&nbsp;and co-devised by&nbsp;Tay Kong Hui,&nbsp;Koh Hui Ling&nbsp;and Epin Chia, Doreen Toh and&nbsp;Neo Hai Bin,&nbsp;News Busters!&nbsp;is the first "mockumentary theatre" ever created and performed in Singapore.

Combining elements of Italian Commedia Dell'arte, variety shows and family soap operas, the performance caricatures current events that affect the people of Si

News Busters! (2013)

Conceptualizer

1 in 10 women&nbsp;in Singapore experiences physical violence in her lifetime.
6 in 10 women&nbsp;suffer repeated victimisation.
More than 1 case a week&nbsp;reaches AWARE's Sexual Assault Befrienders Service.
51%&nbsp;of the respondents polled in a survey believed that violence in the family&nbsp;'is a private affair'.

Join us in this Forum Theatre Play and explore the issues of violence against women. The play is created and performed by a group of passionate volunteers under the directorial leaders

Just A Bad Day (2013)

In the beginning of this year, at the start of the Kuo Pao Kun Festival 2012, Liu Xiaoyi together with 10 young performers devised and created a site-specific work within the creative cocoon of the Stamford Arts Centre. To bring the festival to a close, Liu will now work with 10 veteran performers in&nbsp;11 - Kuo Pao Kun Devised Again.

They will draw inspiration from a wealth of Kuo's scripts, papers, speeches, ideologies and incidents in Kuo's life to create a new devised presentation. Some of the perf

11: Kuo Pao Kun Devised Again (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)

Collaborator

National Arts Council

Twelve contenders vie to be the ultimate national icon, amid a backdrop of myths, stories and drama where the Lim Bo Seng Memorial stands.&nbsp;

Out for the kill, they will "spar" for your vote. Step aside, Manny Pacquiao, you don't stand a chance.&nbsp;


XII – In Search of 13 (2012)

As part of a series inspired by the Nobel prize-winning novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez,&nbsp;One Hundred Years of Solitude - Cultural Revolution&nbsp;is a spellbinding examination of social history, following multiple generations of cultural evolution and uprisings.&nbsp;

Led by Zuni Icosahedron's celebrated Artistic Director Danny Yung, this production features an international cast in an exciting new cultural twist. Collaborating in this performance are 12 of Singapore's rising theatrical practitioner

One Hundred Years of Solitude 10.0 - Cultural Revolution (2012)

Performer

Who is considered a virgin? Does an intact hymen constitute to being a virgin? Even if it were reconstructed? What about those who just indulge in tongue action? Masturbating without intercourse? Victims of sexual harassment without intercourse? What about those with wild fantasies? Are lesbians considered virgins? Who is considered an old maid? At what age are you considered an old maid? Says who?&nbsp;


The Old Maid (2011)

Is sex work work?

If so, could sex workers enjoy the same legal entitlements and employee benefits as the rest of us?

Do they deserve dignity?&nbsp;


how much? phase 2 (2011)

Playwright

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)

A simple marriage, an ambiguous affair; a tormenting suspicion, a burden to bear.&nbsp;

How far would a man go, to prove himself a cuckold?&nbsp;

This is a very very little town...&nbsp;

In Mandarin, with English surtitles.&nbsp;

Approximately 90 mins, no intermission.&nbsp;


The Magnanimous Cuckold (2010)

Set Concept

A person dies; a funeral ensues; kinfolk amass.&nbsp;

A coffin for the dead; a hole for the coffin; a set of rules for the living.

What happens when the coffin is too big for the hole?

Who will budge in this tug-of-war between human compassion and the 'system'?&nbsp;

Based on the original play written in 1985 by Singapore Cultural Medallion winner, Kuo Pao Kun. Adapted by Li Xie.&nbsp;

Advisory: In relevance to the script, audiences will be placed in a funeral wake-like setting.

In Mandari

The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (2010)

One woman wrote a book on “Freedom from Fear” while the other struggled in fear.

The mother.
Accused&nbsp;of leaving of stillborn child in the locker.
Pleaded&nbsp;guilty.
Escaped&nbsp;jail sentence.
Ordered&nbsp;to do 80 hours of community service.
Abused&nbsp;by her husband.

The freedom fighter.
Accused&nbsp;of violating State rules.&nbsp;
Not&nbsp;guilty.
Did not&nbsp;escape detention. (in detention for the past 13 years)
Works&nbsp;for peace.
Abused&nbsp;by political opposition.

And F

A Madwoman's Diary (2009)

IgnorLAND&nbsp;is a community project that brings audiences to places and spaces with stories to tell. The second instalment,&nbsp;IgnorLAND&nbsp;of its Desires, will look at the place where carnal and the spiritual meets: GEYLANG. The three segments of the play performance will focus on: Sex, Food, Gods/Religion. We are also planning for a Food Map, charting the food eateries around Geylang.


IgnorLAND of its Desires (2009)

Co-Artistic Director

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)

News Busters!&nbsp;or&nbsp;Dua Dai Ji, is the first "Mockumentary Theatre" ever created and performed in Singapore, combining Italian Commedia dell'arte, variety shows and family soap opera. The play pokes fun of news headlines and satirises current events which affect everyone in Singapore. For the 2009 performance, the cast will revisit the history of Singapore from 1960s onwards, looking at the decisions made after our independence and how they have affected us after 43 years.


News Busters! (2009)

Cake Theatrical Productions

Temple sees the invention of a mythological universe&nbsp;where all the quarters of the world are at odds. A sports&nbsp;hall, once the diplomatic meeting arena of the now&nbsp;opposing sides, stands desolate.

Seven people, assailed, stand at the entrance of the great&nbsp;hall. Quickly, they enter and bolt the doors. Some nights&nbsp;they hear pounding on the doors but they keep very&nbsp;still and do nothing. Within the inner sanctum, they create their own rules, find their own order. Above all,&nbsp;t

Temple (2008)

House of Sins&nbsp;unveils the sins that had been lurking deep within people through a perfect family that is chosen on a sacred night to participate in a holy project. To save the sinners from hell, they are prepared to sacrifice themselves.

R18 (Mature Content)


House of Sins (2008)

Italian impromptu street theatre meets family soap opera! Chew on its wicked doses of satirical humour as we relive recent headline news including civil servants' pay increment, GST hike, F1 in Singapore and masseuse issues.


News Busters! (2007)

Full Frontal invites young theatre creatives to explore&nbsp;and confront new dimensions in their practice through&nbsp;theatre directing. Flexing their directorial muscle by revisiting&nbsp;known texts from Singapore's theatre and literary canon&nbsp;and breathing fresh perspectives into them,&nbsp;Full Frontal&nbsp;aims to help nurture Singapore’s next generation of&nbsp;directors and at the same time deepen appreciation of&nbsp;Singapore's literature.

With dramaturgical support from Robin Loon and&nbs

A Little White Sailing Boat (2007)

Collective Mayhem

Catch this new collaborative work by Collective Mayhem which explores the mysterious world of human memory. Stars Lim Kay Siu and Li Xie.

(Source: The Straits Times)


Memory - Human Remains (2007)

A young Singaporean considered the world his home. A mother wanted her child by her side. A foreigner longed to feel at home in a foreign land. What is HOME to them?


SOIL (2006)

A prequel to SHITHOLE,&nbsp;Trash&nbsp;is a thought-provoking and humorous look at what revolution means - ideology, power, greed and bloodshed.

In a unknown era, unknown small country far away. The Government exercises stringent birth control on the low-downs of the society. A FEMALE WORKER is found to be pregnant without a permit. Pursued by the authorities, she is saved by SUPERMAN who wants to help the people build a LAND of EQUALITY. But amongst them is a spy, who tries to incite the FEMALE WORKER t

Trash (2006)

Costume Designer

Sound Designer

A professor and his students embark on the study of&nbsp;life through e-mail exchanges. What does the heart&nbsp;want and where can it be found? Will home be found there too?&nbsp;

Meet life's characters — the teacher, the lover, the old woman, the medium and the terrorist,&nbsp;who lay bare their hearts even as they search for it. Each is at the crossroad of choice: to&nbsp;claim a new sense of belonging or be lost to nostalgia.

A Stranger at Home&nbsp;combines elements of music, film and literature 

A Stranger At Home (2006)

Part of the community performance TOUR’06 series, the piece had the public joining in the dialogue by going onstage to enact their suggestions/solutions to problems surfaced in the play. This particular piece focused on issues with regards to problem gambling.


168! (2006)

Adapted from Oscar Wilde's love letters,&nbsp;The Happy Prince&nbsp;and&nbsp;Salome,&nbsp;Happy&nbsp;explores the manipulations and emotional turmoil in the search for love and happiness.

The musical theatre opens with the trial of Oscar Wilde, where he was convicted for sodomy. Alone in his cell, feeling hurt and betrayed by the society that once loved him, Wilde questioned the notion of love in this conservative society.

Originally set in Ancient Rome,&nbsp;Salome&nbsp;is a verse drama about lust, d

Happy (2005)

In the faraway land there was a village and a red river carried its crimson waters across this little piece of land. Beside the river sat a small toilet shed; everyone liked it even though it was horribly dirty and smelly. For a hundred years, the villagers thought they would live happily ever after.&nbsp;

One day, the king sent down an order to tear down the toilet. The villagers tried searching for the toilet construction manual passed down by their ancestors but they could not find it. Hence they shit

Shithole (2004)

Mask Designer

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Drama Box presents an unabashed look at the prejudices individuals harbour, but won't admit to. Adapted from the famous Chinese collection of stories about spirits, this play provides a blatant exposé on the prejudices against Muslims, women and foreign talent.&nbsp;

Directed by Young Artist Award-winner Kok Heng Leun and starring Li Xie and Danny Yeo, the poignant imagery of animal spirits unable to co-exist with mankind serves as a glaring eye-opening - a mirror revealing all the negatives of the human

Liao Zhai - Of Man, Spirits and The Others (2004)

Mask Producer

Listen to its stories. Hear its songs. Feel its passion.
About vagina. About menstruation. About women.
For women. For men. For humankind.
Honest. Provocative. Humorous. Poignant.&nbsp;


The vaginaLOGUE (2003)

A forum performance. Based on real-life stories created by inmates of Selarang Park drug rehabilitation centre that discusses the stress and problems faced by a previous drug addict when trying to quit drugs.


Prison (2003)

A well-to-do Chinese family is displaced in colonial Singapore. The head of the family, in pandering to the demands of his British masters, becomes oppressor to his own people and the natives, while struggling to stay connected to his ancestral roots.

A devotee of patriarchal dignity, he oppresses his household by imposing on them his ideals and values in order to keep up with social appearances - how his wife should behave as a woman, his son a man, and his Malay manservant as a Chinese.

The seemingl

Cloud Nine (2003)

How much do you know about the old folks in your home?

Do you know about their secret fears and desires?

Do you wish to listen to the voices in their head?

Do you want to help them untie the knot in their heart?

Bring them to this workshop! Let their story be the script!

And they will be the character! Together, you all will decide how the scirpt begins and ends!

Unbelievable?!!??? Join us in this workshop and we will show you...


A Private Room (2002)

Joan wants to save the chicken, but the chicken refuses her help.&nbsp;
Thus, Joan kills the chicken.

Joan wants to save the chicken, but the chicken refuses her help.&nbsp;
Thus, Joan sells the chicken.

Joan wants to save the chicken, but the chicken refuses her help.&nbsp;
Thus, Joan kills herself to feed the chicken.

Comprising three short fables, this final presentation of&nbsp;The Blanc Space&nbsp;explores modern people's mass amnesia and loss of history through transaction.


White Songs (2002)

He is a jobless man, a violent husband and an unloved father.

She is the sole breadwinner of the family, an abused wife and a strict mother.

She is a rebllious teenager, her mother's punch bag and her father's frustration outlet.

This is a family tragedy that begins with the helplessness of three people.

We will give you a chance to re-write the script. We will let you replace the characters on stage.

You can change their lives!


Have You Beaten? (2002)

To all parents / sons and daughters,

Want to know the fears and desires of your parent / child?

Dying to find out the voices in the head of your child / parent?

Do you know theatre can help you do all that?

Let your story be the script! And you will be the character! You will decide how the script begins and ends!

Unbelievable??!!!??? Join us in this workshop and we will show you...


Eighteen-month theatrical training project,
vision and mission.

Nine months intensive collaborative training,
adhering to a belief.

Work-in-progress,
In relentless pursuit.

The few scenes of a story,
a betrayal.

The first presentation of The Blanc Space
White Songs


White Songs (2001)

A woman cooks a sumptuous dinner for her family to celebrate her birthday. Her husband returns home and upset over the loss of his job, hits her and pushes her down their flat. But she returns, as she has not finished her cooking. Her son returns home shortly and engages in a fight with his father. She gets pushed down the flat again. Yet she comes back the second time to finish her cooking. At this moment, her female boss arrives at her home. But there is not enough food. What is she to do? Funny yet poign

Lian Can Cook! (2001)

news angles... news elements... news headlines...&nbsp;

What exactly is news? Come and find out in the News Theatre!&nbsp;


News Theatre (2000)

Video

rub kick knead lick pinch blow punch pull strangle prick brush bite suck smear twist bang knock pat thrust press step hit pull kiss push hold caress snatch scratch poke spit hug drag cut tickle slap pluck cover squeeze plunge peel carry clean grind scrape grab whip slam tear

A father. A mother. A son. A prostitute. An accident.

A chance for these characters to re-discover the consequences of a touch, the truth behind a touch, and the beauty of TOUCH...


Skin (2000)

The vaginaLOGUE

Listen to its stories. Hear its songs. Feel its passion.

About vagina. About menstruation. About women. For women. For men. For humankind.

Honest. Provocative. Humorous. Poignant.


The vaginaLOGUE (2000)

Ah Beng, our very own Singaporean neighbourhood young man, grew up in a simple and ordinary life with his lot of carefree friends and humble family.

Peach, a sophisticated uptown girl, comes along one day with the lure of beauty, wealth and a future of glamour and success.

Beng knows the only way to make it in this world is by forsaking his free and easy lifestyle. He embarks on a hunt for dignity. He will be polished; he will be learned; he wants to be bourgeois.

As Beng embraces his new love and 

Mr Beng (2000)

A monologue, and the first Mandarin play in Singapore to deal with the issue of women and women's bodies in a direct way.


Sour Relationship (1999)

a play about youths of two generations, about waiting, about remembering and forgetting, about forgotten ideals, about oblivion...

year:&nbsp;1963
time:&nbsp;8pm
location:&nbsp;Nanyang Lake
scenario: amidst a student demonstration at Nanyang Lake, Nanyang University
Xiao Ling was waiting for her boyfriend, when a police round-up took place
"...what did you want to tell me? Why must we meet at the lake? I had this premonition... something bad was going to happen."
and she waited for 30 years.

yea

I Remember '99 (1999)

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Centre 42

Leng-Geh-Mng&nbsp;(“Dragon’s Tooth Gate”) is a comedy which spoofs the conventions of pugilistic films set in ancient China. This play was written by playwrights Lee Shyh Jih and Lim Poh Poh and was first staged in 1998.

After nearly two decades, Zelda Tatiana Ng revisits&nbsp;Leng-Geh-Mng&nbsp;in this Vault instalment, alongside some of the original cast members. Under Zelda’s direction and treatment,&nbsp;Leng-Geh-Mng&nbsp;will be retold in the format of a radio play. The actors will read the original 

Li Xie

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