The Necessary Stage

Hello and welcome. We are from the SG Insecure Task Force. We are here to share with you our Huat Ah! initiatives to promote community bonding and the kampung spirit—while instilling fear and insecurity in your hearts! Do you see anything suspicious? Be vigilant! Report radical ideas and non-traditional values! Together we will make Singapore SUSA: Staying Under Surveillance Always. &nbsp;The Necessary Stage presents SG Insecure, a provocative investigation of Singapore past and present. Migrant workers, th

SG Insecure (2025)

Lighting Designer

The Theatre Practice

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

“My grandfather was a durian farmer, back when they lived in a kampung. But in those 10 years, most Singaporeans were forced to relocate to public housing. Even after he moved, my grandfather was still trying to grow everything he could from a sixth floor concrete corridor. Everything he knew about growing durians was made obsolete so that knowledge was never passed down.”&nbsp;A show disguised as a pickling workshop, Pickle Party is a multidisciplinary, multi-species performance. Set against the backdrop o

Pickle Party (2025)

Checkpoint Theatre

Two of Singapore theatre’s most formidable multi-hyphenates craft a lyrical spectacle of the past and present, speaking to all who have known the harsh bitterness and gentle longing of awaiting a new normal.What do stories of war tell us about human resilience and how we care for those closest to us? How does telling these stories help us to comfort and to heal?Created by Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman, Escape to Batam is a delicate tapestry of the past and the present, weaving the remarkable lived experien

Escape to Batam (2025)

The Finger Players

A destructive fire razes through the squatter settlement of Bukit Ho Swee, leaving thousands of families homeless. To help the victims of the fire, Swee Leng, a Samsui woman, rises to the occasion and volunteers her time in the rebuilding efforts. Through sheer hard work and perseverance, she earns the respect of her peers and becomes a foreman at a construction site.Set in 1960s Singapore, Samsui Women: One Brick at a Time is a life-sized puppetry performance based on the lives of the Samsui women of Singa

Samsui Women: One Brick at a Time (2025)

Le Jeu Studio

A man, a table, a pack of instant noodles, a can of luncheon meat, a cassette tape recorder. This is a journey of life, about reflection and acceptance. When the present meets the past, perhaps the future becomes clear. Every day, an elderly man eats a can of luncheon meat, to keep a promise to his wife. Alone and adrift, he revisits past moments and memories, in search of meaning and closure. As the days pass, he gets closer to his last can of luncheon meat.

Last Luncheon (2025)

A young Singaporean man is making a journey to his father's birthplace in Hyderabad, Pakistan. With him are his father's ashes. As he makes the arduous trip, he retraces the original journey made by millions of people—including his parents and grandparents—in 1947, during the partition of India and Pakistan.Written by Haresh Sharma, Eclipse is a play that looks at three generations of men struggling with their dreams and their journeys, offering an intimate look at personal stories affected by historical ev

Eclipse (2025)

Set Coordinator

Lighting Coordinator

Noor Effendy Ibrahim

Ruby Jayaseelan

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

In the beginning, God created despair, for men to find hope within. Someone heard someone else say this somewhere before, sometime back. But no one knows who, when and where. It must have been God herself who had said this through some men. Only God could be that smart to tease men into such futility. And here, men find themselves being baited into their own despair.Conceptualised and directed by Noor Effendy Ibrahim and Ruby Jayaseelan, Dancing with the Ghost of My Child is an experimental physical theatre

Dancing with the Ghost of My Child (2025)

A celestial stone reincarnates as the scion of a wealthy aristocratic family. Baoyu, born with a jade in his mouth, is raised as the heir and Precious Jade of the clan. The heir takes centre stage in a love rivalry between his two cousins – Daiyu and Baochai, amidst the backdrop of the family’s slow financial collapse.Presented by The Finger Players,&nbsp;Dream of the Red Chamber&nbsp;is award-winning playwright and director Chong Tze Chien’s reinterpretation of one of the four greatest Chinese classical li

Dream of the Red Chamber (2024)

The state of the garden tells you a lot about the person who owns it.Eve returns to her childhood home to find her father’s beloved garden in disarray.When will the flower bloom again? In its own time. In its own time.A compelling mix of heart and humour, Isabella Chiam’s The Last Gardener is a tender portrayal of the maddening, beautifully complex relationship between parent and child. This is a story about growth, grief and good gardening.A first version was staged at Practice's It's Not About The Numbers

The Last Gardener (2024)

Three incredible acrobats dream up a stunning creation that insists on co-creating with them. A mannequin faces public flogging whenever the model and seamstress fail to measure up to a cat’s superior fabric scratching skills. An eight-legged octopus dance coach receives an unexpected lesson from a four-legged cat and dog who combine their limbs in a surprising way, creating a sum greater than its parts.&nbsp;Step into ONE-TWO-SIX Cairnhill Arts Centre and embark on a journey through three whimsical and sel

Puppet Origin Stories @ ONE-TWO-SIX: Persona Paradox (2023)

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)

Jo Tan

Chong Tze Chien

Val is the deejay on a Singapore morning radio show - 'The Happy Place on One One Oh Point Oh'. She is interviewing her old friend Estee, now an Instagram political poet writing about pressing social issues. But as their chirpy on-air conversation quickly spirals into a heated and emotional debate on their significance and place in society, and they deploy all available verbal ammunition and even uncover buried secrets to best each other, there are several questions that both refuse to answer: Where is Val’

Happy Place (2023)

An Artist considers her mortality, what her art has given her and what she will leave behind. She engages a documentary filmmaker to create what she considers to be her final legacy, but is stumped when her iron strong opinions perspectives are being challenged by him, and a robot.Presented by&nbsp;The&nbsp;Finger Players and supported by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Qualcomm Foundation,&nbsp;The&nbsp;Ageing&nbsp;Artist&nbsp;is a puppetry performance that weaves together elements of STEM. Targeted at families, this piece 

The Ageing Artist (2023)

A Yagnya

Caught between traditional Indian arranged marriage and modern dating, Girl is made an unwilling participant of a bizarre game show. She is thrown around the space by Man, who morphs into everything from a Bollywood star, to a questionable fortune teller, to even Girl's Mother who has bought into The Patriarchy™ and thinks her daughter will never find happiness without getting married.Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea...follows Girl as she struggles to come to terms with her identity, and battles with so

Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea... (2022)

Jeff wants to do the right thing. So does his brother. And his mother. And his sister-in-law. So an important discussion over family dinner should go smoothly... right?Inspired by Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene, Extinction Feast is a playful black comedy about Asian culture, fish consumption and our pesky conscience.Director Ang Xiao Ting assembles an international team of collaborators to create a multidisciplinary theatrical feast combining performance, multimedia and live foley. Blending storytel

Extinction Feast (2022)

If home is where the heart is,what do you do when your heart says,“Actually… Is it ok if I don’t want to go home?”Kuala Lumpur-born, Singapore-based Ng Mun Poh has spent the last 18 years of her life travelling between her two “homes”. As she should.In a monodrama equal parts heartfelt and humorous, almost home dramatises the struggle of finding her place in a home where nothing, and yet so much has changed.A first version of the work,&nbsp;Daughter, was received with rave reviews as part of Practice’s&nbsp

almost home (2022)

Singapore Repertory Theatre

Gretel’s life is turned upside down when her new brother Hansel arrives. He gets all the attention, the cuddles and the kisses and poor Gretel is told to ‘grow up’ and remember that she’s ‘a big girl now’! But Gretel doesn’t want to be big! And she doesn’t want the annoying little brother who’s too small to play.When Mother and Father take the children to the forest, Gretel has a chance to get rid of the little brother once and for all. But the forest is full of danger and Gretel will have to learn to get a

Gretel & Hansel (2022)

Associate Lighting Designer

Armed with a tape recorder, Sarah, an ambitious young oral historian, begins the task of interviewing Mrs Siraj, who recounts her youth and romance under the Japanese Occupation. As she listens to these stories of the past, Sarah struggles with questions of her own life in modern day Singapore and what the future holds.

Twenty years after its standout premiere,&nbsp;Occupation&nbsp;continues to captivate audiences with its lyrical and moving account of tender love and bold passions. Acclaimed playwright 

Occupation (2022)

At first there was one, and then two, and then three. They catch breaths from one another, learning to play quickly and slowly. Creating playscapes that are out of this world, the three experiment with one another, making sounds, shapes and colours, and playing off on each other’s energy. Harnessing the power of breaths, they make different objects move up and down, fast and slow.Catch a Breath! is a performance that revolves around the strength and power of breath. Given so little attention, breathing is t

Catch a Breath! (2022)

Wei Collective

Why do we feel rootless?
Why do we feel like aliens on our land?

We created man-made things to protect ourselves from nature. Yet because of this, we are alienated from nature.

We are shaken, unplugged— how do we find our centre?

Through the relationship between man and sea, we seek to discover what it means to be an intricate part of nature. In be-ing, we attempt to draw strength from nature, and from that source, we discover how to be at ease in the sea of life.

In this rendition, 微 Wei Colle

Being 息在 (2022)

Set Designer

Today we're talking about change.&nbsp;

We believe that we have it in us to change - and change for the better. We would like to distinguish between right and wrong behaviours.&nbsp;

Basic values must be upheld and must stand as the cornerstone of any modern society we live in. For example, we need to create social stability, harmony and security. We must protect and promote strong family bonds. Decadent Western lifestyles and divisiveness through activism must be rejected. Socially irresponsible beha

_____ Can Change (2021)

Nine Years Theatre

In 1879, scientific genius Thomas Edison successfully created the world's first practical incandescent bulb. He was about to light up New York and the entire world, using his Direct Current electrical system. Along came another inventor Nikola Tesla who insisted that his Alternating Current electrical system was superior to Edison's. A battle ensued, as ambitions and aspirations clashed in this "War of Currents". What drove these great minds to achieve the impossible, and what must they learn to sacrifice i

Electrify My World (2021)

Liew Jia Yi

We did not come here by choice.But we are here anyway.This place can be big and small.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; beautiful and ugly,Complete and brokenAll at the same time.Part installation, part theatre, A Window Travel is a solo self-directed participatory experience inspired by the self-reflection tool Johari Window. Offering a moment of introspection and mindfulness, audiences are given a "travel ki

A Window Travel (2021)

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)

A man stabs an MP at a Meet the People Session. But this is not their story.

It is the story of the man’s girlfriend, an Indonesian maid who wants to get married and become a Singapore citizen. It is the story of the MP’s wife, who tries to cope with her husband’s injury and the media spotlight. It is the story of the maid’s employer, who is also struggling with her own tragedy.

These three women may mean nothing to each other, but they need one another to survive.

The maid, the employer and the MP

Model Citizens (2021)

The Aesthetic Project

'A man waiting for the leaves to fall' is a digital performative narration that chronicles the pivotal events in a man’s life. This 20-minute long digital production explores the relationship of the film medium within a new theatre paradigm where theatrical design takes centerstage as characters.Supported by the National Arts Council Digital Presentation Grant, The Aesthetic Project focuses on the theatrical design language intersecting with screen medium to create a new experience, in the absence of dialog

A man waiting for the leaves to fall (2021)

Conceptualizer

They are not just convicts of the colony, they are to be citizens of the new world.Nine Years Theatre and Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre jointly present to you First Fleet. The audience will be seated on the stage of the Cultural Centre’s auditorium, as they set sail with the players to explore the relationships between theatre and humanity.The year is 1787. The First Fleet of the British Empire sets sail for Australia with a group of convicts aboard, to establish a penal colony. Along the way, the Gover

First Fleet (2021)

Assistant Lighting Designer

Seen through the eyes of a child,&nbsp;Love is the Last Thing on my Mind&nbsp;is a collection of vignettes of everyday society.

A child is obsessed by gardening while her mother is obsessed with protecting her from the enveloping haze, an elderly home of neglected old folks confront their mortality, a couple in love gradually transit towards mutual neglect.

Directed by The Finger Players Core Team Member, Ong Kian Sin, Love is the Last Thing on my Mind&nbsp;is a heart-warming piece about the seemingly

Love is the Last Thing on my Mind (2020)

“Everyone should have a chance to be King. Now, it’s my turn."

Based on the famous 16th-century epic novel by Wu Cheng’en, this is an action-packed tale of the roguish Monkey King and his exploits in a Journey To Nowhere.

Ingenious, witty, violent and impatient, Monkey has been imprisoned because of the chaos he has wrought in heaven. To be redeemed, he must guide the Buddhist monk Tripitaka on a mystical quest. Together with lovesick Pigsy, they encounter demons, spirits, dragons and gods on what see

Journey To Nowhere (2020)

Okorn-Kuo Jing Hong

A new media experience co-created by a multidisciplinary group of performers, designers and directors. Amid a pandemic, where time and space are warped, and how we exist and connect feels alienating, What If explores being human.Presenting to you 4 original works that will each be accompanied by a short animation. Audience participation is welcomed in all shows.

What If (2020)

Designer

Teater Ekamatra

Punggah tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Zaitun, a palliative care nurse who finds joy in burying cuttings, patients and her past; and Martin, a filial man trying to trace his dying mother's past in order to fulfil her final request. Compelled by time, both struggle to deal with personal conflicts as they try to reconcile the past and the present—all in the hope of carrying out responsibilities for the people they both love and hate. Punggah explores themes of reconciliation and redemption

Punggah (2020)

GroundZ-0 原。空間

It's Friday night. Everyone is out painting the town red. A car in a secluded spot near a bar quietly holds a bloodied corpse. This looks like a murder, but nothing is as it seems.A high-ranking police officer, a dedicated educator and an award-winning entrepreneur cross paths in the bar. The chance encounter leads these three individuals down a rabbit hole that ends in blood. Was it a murder or a suicide? An act of self-defence or a retaliation to a rape?As everyone presents their testimony to the jury, th

Prism of Truth《眾相》(2020)

Director Oliver Chong cross-references verbatim text from interviews with a cast from the NAFA BA (Hons) Theatre Arts course, with texts from two seminal plays by Singaporean playwrights Kuo Pao Kun and Alfian Sa’at. The works seeks to excavate subjective truths, instead of a singular collective voice, to uncover myriad interpretations of the Singaporean sentiments on “happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation”.


Contemplating Kopitiam and Kampong Wa' Hassan (2020)

Four students drop a birthday surprise on their teacher Elena, but the true intention of their visit is unveiled when they attempt to persuade her to hand over the key to the safe where their exam papers are being kept. For the sake of their academic progress, they must falsify their scores; for the sake of their futures, excuses are made to justify their actions. The teacher finds herself in a predicament when her students begin coercing her. To stop them from making further mistakes, Elena stands firm and

Dear Elena (2019)

STRANGER 艺族

A woman awakes and finds herself in the underworld, dead. As if that isn't enough, she learns that she needs to rush through her application for reincarnation. She revisits life-changing episodes of her life, only to find out that she has a knot in her heart, one that has been forgotten and buried in her mind ...waiting to be untied.

KNOTS is an original production created by the drama group, STRANGER. Made up of six young artists, STRANGER hopes to tell a story that depicts language politics and societa

Knots (2019)

After Grandma’s passing, her extended family holds a seven-day wake at the void deck. Clashing siblings, long-suffering in-laws, and estranged sons come together to hurt and to heal when their world is upended. Each must learn to say goodbye while struggling to hold on to those left behind.

Playwright Zenda Tan delivers a beautiful and incisive portrayal of family dynamics fraught with grief and past grievances. As they navigate unfamiliar rites and funeral rituals, they discover that food, offerings, an

Eat Duck (2019)

What is your recipe for a successful family?&nbsp;

What does it take for us to work through conflicts together? Or will the ties that bind come undone when times are hard — or when we bid our final goodbyes?

The Necessary Stage’s Theatre for Seniors celebrates its 10th anniversary with&nbsp;It Takes All Kinds, a heartwarming performance about love in our families. Developed in collaboration with Setagaya Public Theatre from Tokyo, the devised production is created by our seniors and residents through 

It Takes All Kinds (2019)

Wild Rice

I'm a long, long way from home / And I miss my family so
In the early morning march / When the cold wind blows

It has been ten years since Xavier Ong left National Service. And yet, he is still haunted by a recurring dream in which he is interrogated by a man in army uniform. Each time, Xavier has to revisit his days on Pulau Tekong. Like the first time he timidly touched his newly-shaved head. Or the first time he started using coarse language. And the time he was promoted to a Platoon Sergeant and bec

When The Cold Wind Blows (2018)

A man visits the&nbsp;lorongs&nbsp;of Geylang for the first time with his friend. It isn't actually his first time, as he's been there before for the famous food. But, on this particular night, they're there for the woman. His friend tells him about the G.F.E. or 'Girl Friend Experience': where a sex worker "will look into your eyes, just like your girlfriend". On a local online forum, women are reviewed and rated according to 'face', 'service' and the 'G.F.E.' that they provide.

The friend tells the man

G.F.E. (2018)

Chong Gua Khee

In the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life, how often do we take time to have conversations with other people, much less conversations based on real connection?&nbsp;

In HOT POT TALK: Theatre &amp; the Arts, we push this question further, and ask if we can have conversations based on real connection with people we don’t know very well or whose worlds may be quite different from ours. How can different worlds encounter each other, and specifically, how can we bridge theatre and society?&nbsp;

Come and

Hot Pot Talk (2017)

What makes a marriage? The fully furnished HDB flat, the mutual secret keeping, the mother-in-law? Azam and Xiaoyan have to confront their differences when Azam's mother and sister make a surprise visit at home. Clashes of culture, religion and gender lurk within the still waters of everyday life and threaten to undo familial ties.&nbsp;

Heartbreaking and humorous in turns,&nbsp;Drip&nbsp;is an unflinching look at the sacrifices - big and small - that we make to be at peace with one another and with ours

Drip (2017)

Two best friends and fellow actors perform the first scene of a play and decide to change it. As fiction and truth become interwoven, they share stories, secrets and sweets. A meditative play about the things you lose and the things you search for in life,&nbsp;Whale Fall&nbsp;explores the redemptive power of art and friendship.&nbsp;


Whale Fall (2017)

10-year-old Eric enjoyed visiting the home of his neighbours, Habiba and Ismail. The couple, who was so fond of him, treated him like their own child. In the embrace of this warm relationship, Eric felt cared for and loved. To his young mind, the door to Habiba and Ismail’s house was a gateway to paradise. Fast forward 20 years, Eric is now 30 and has returned to his childhood home to visit his neighbours, only to uncover a shocking secret that has lain hidden in the house where he spent so many happy hours

Fundamentally Happy (2017)

Located in a spacious Upper East Side apartment in New York, Amir has worked hard to achieve the American Dream. With South Asian Muslim roots, he has gone on to become a successful lawyer, marry a beautiful American wife, and own a wardrobe of $600 custom-tailored shirts.

But when Amir hosts a dinner party for his African American colleague and her Jewish art curator husband, the initially pleasant evening erupts into a volatile argument over race, religion and politics in the modern world.

Set in po

Disgraced (2016)

Playground Entertainment

State of Mind is Playground Entertainment's second theatre production and is a collection of four short plays about ordinary people living with mental conditions.What do Whitney Houston, hoarder auntie, Barbie-wannabe &amp; Ah Boy have in common?

State of Mind (2016)

Drama Box

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)

Assistant Stage Manager

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

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)

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)

Lighting Operator

National University of Singapore Theatre & Performance Studies Programme

Derek, a high ranking civil servant, is tasked with a herculean assignment of finding soul for the nation. His search leads him to three wildly different individuals – a communist, a fighter of the arts, and a mama-san, who all claim to have the million-dollar answer. Who has the answer? And will Derek ever find soul?


The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine (2009)

Production Executive

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Centre 42

“Ta’at Setia”&nbsp;– Loyal and True

These were the words that the brave soldiers of the Malay Regiment lived and died by. Up until the end, they fought tooth and nail to keep Singapore from falling to the Japanese invaders. And they did, to their dying breath. How did they come to this? Did they ever think to run? What were they fighting for?

In&nbsp;The Regiment, we try to piece together the story of a few recruits in the Malay Regiment, in the years leading up to the Fall of Singapore in 1942. We wi

The Regiment by Isabella Chiam

In the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life, how often do we take time to have conversations with other people, much less conversations based on real connection?

In&nbsp;HOT POT TALK: Theatre &amp; the Arts, we push this question further, and ask if we can have conversations based on real connection with people we don’t know very well or whose worlds may be quite different from ours.

How can different worlds encounter each other, and specifically, how can we bridge theatre and society?

Come and joi

HOT POT TALK: Theatre & the Arts by Chong Gua Khee

《招》When The Cold Wind Blows&nbsp;is a new work exploration that came out of a collaboration between two independent artists Neo Hai Bin and Chong Woon Yong. This work explores the Singaporean male identity, using the National Service as a premise, and discover how we deal with the many possibilities (good and bad) that the human nature encompass inherently.

《招》When The Cold Wind Blows&nbsp;was developed under Centre 42's Basement Workshop (now known as the Creation Residency). Read about Basement Worksho

Faith Liu Yong Huay

PARTICIPATION IN C42

WORKS DOCUMENTED IN THE ARCHIVE

Faith Liu Yong Huay

PARTICIPATION IN C42

WORKS DOCUMENTED IN THE ARCHIVE

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