Checkpoint Theatre

Following sold-out runs of the critically acclaimed&nbsp;Normal (2015 and 2017), playwright Faith Ng and director Claire Wong return with&nbsp;The Fourth Trimester, a compelling new play that will sweep you into the vivid, messy embrace of parenthood and family life.

The first month is always the roughest.

Exhausted from battling sleepless nights and endless diaper changes, first-time parents Samantha and Aaron find themselves overwhelmed caring for their newborn. Close friends rally around them in su

The Fourth Trimester (2022)

Set Design Assistant

Props Manager

Rupa co.lab

A night-hour safehouse for the troubled youths, dropouts, runaways and delinquents of the Malay community is run by a pair of ex-offenders. When external intervention looms, it will take their collective efforts to keep the walls of their home up. Or will they come tumbling down? Written by Nessa Anwar, Rumah Dayak is an unflinching look at the struggle to guard a home built out of circumstances surrounding poverty, deprivation and abuse.

Performed in Malay and English, with English surtitles. Rating to 

Rumah Dayak (2019)

Production Stage Manager

The Necessary Stage

There is no past without colonisation,&nbsp;and there is no future without it.

As we commemorate the bicentennial of the founding of Singapore, let us take a moment to express our gratitude to our founding father/s for their foresight in transforming Singapore from a small fishing village to a global metropolis. We are civilised!

Let's marvel at how, all over the world, our land has been plundered, our laws kept archaic and our freedoms curtailed by those in power. Let us honour our pursuit of economi

Civilised (2019)

NUS Stage

NUS Centre For the Arts unveils a new staging of Complicité UK’s exquisite, internationally acclaimed play about love, math, and how the past and future&nbsp;connect.In 1913, a clerk in rural India named Srinivasa Ramanujan sends a letter to famed mathematician G. H. Hardy, filled with astonishing mathematical theorems. In the present, a math professor and a businessman fall in love. Winner of the 2007 Critics’ Circle Theatre, Evening Standard, and Laurence Olivier awards for Best New Play, the play blends 

A Disappearing Number (2019)

Stage Manager

The Necessary Stage’s critically acclaimed play,&nbsp;Off Centre, returns 26 years after its premiere in 1993. Written by Haresh Sharma and directed by Alvin Tan,&nbsp;Off Centre&nbsp;is a landmark play in the history of Singapore theatre, best remembered for presenting an honest and unflinching look at mental illness and the stigma surrounding it.

Off Centre&nbsp;follows the unlikely friendship between Saloma and Vinod, and traces their journeys as they deal with their personal conflicts as well as soci

Off Centre (2019)

Production Manager

Chong Gua Khee

Tan Liting

The Tortoise and the Hare&nbsp;is a well-known folk story with many different versions.&nbsp;

A grandmother and her grandson collide with each other over the stories that each tells, one championing the importance of stories and the other questioning the impact stories can have. Will they ever agree?

Embark on a journey to revisit familiar tales that we grew up with, question what they mean, and expect surprises as well as an alternate ending or two in this heartwarming theatre performance.


Tortoise Tales (2018)

Drama Box

In 2016, Drama Box and The Necessary Stage presented the groundbreaking sold-out production&nbsp;Manifesto, that delved into the relationship between art and politics.

This year, the two companies collaborate once again on a brand new work that explores poverty, inequality and human dignity in Singapore.

Underclass&nbsp;tells the story of Xinyi, who finds herself in a downward spiral after losing her job and her flat. When she moves into a rental unit, she meets Johari, and they strike up an unlikely 

Underclass (2018)

Transcriber

Written and directed by Cultural Medallion recipients Haresh Sharma and Alvin Tan respectively,&nbsp;untitled cow number one&nbsp;is about the journey of a widowed cow. The play, which is divided into 12 sections and covers the 12 days of mourning, is strongly influenced by Hindu and Buddhist texts, images and myths. This monodrama is performed by Gloria Tan for the first time in Bahasa Indonesia.&nbsp;

UCNO has been performed in Macau International Fringe Festival (2000) Asian Theatre Festival in Busan 

untitled cow number one (2018)

A terminally ill woman hires a digital legacy company to record video greetings for her children to watch long after she is gone.

In our technologically accelerating world, this scenario of social media legacy planning has become a reality. In the digitised future, memories can be made immortal. Our data can be turned into bots. Protests can happen from the comforts of our own homes. Humans, androids and robots are all adrift in cyberspace.&nbsp;

The Necessary Stage continues its 30th anniversary seas

Sanctuary (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)

Set Designer

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)

First staged in 1990 and subsequently in 2010 to full houses at the Singapore Arts Festival,&nbsp;Those Who Can't, Teach&nbsp;is a Singaporean theatre classic by Cultural Medallion winners Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma.

Set in a secondary school, the play looks at the madcap lives of teachers and students - with often hilarious results. As the teachers struggle daily to 'nurture and groom', the students prefer to hang out and chill. In the meantime, they all have to deal with the dreaded 'parents'.&nbsp;


Those Who Can't, Teach (2017)

In real life, there are no rehearsals and no second takes.

Actor, Forty&nbsp;features Golden Horse Award-winner Yeo Yann Yann returning to the Chinese theatre stage in a special&nbsp;Huayi&nbsp;commission.&nbsp;

This new original monologue sees Yeo collaborating with Cultural Medallion recipients, director Alvin Tan and playwright Haresh Sharma of The Necessary Stage. Candid and conversational, it examines the myriad identities that we take on and cast off in life - just as an actor does when she adop

Actor, Forty (2017)

In 2013, award-winning actress Siti Khalijah Zainal brought The Necessary Stage's&nbsp;Best Of&nbsp;to life, playing the role of a young Malay Muslim woman going through divorce.&nbsp;

Now, accomplished TV and stage actor Sani Hussin takes the stage as the husband to share his side of the story in&nbsp;Best Of (His Story),&nbsp;written by Haresh Sharma and directed by Alvin Tan.&nbsp;

What happens when the estranged couple reunite at the Syariah court? What does he say to a wife seeking divorce? What 

Best Of (His Story) (2016)

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)

Assistant Stage Manager

Are you living a life to fulfil someone else's purpose?

Helmed by Cultural Medallion recipients Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma of The Necessary Stage,&nbsp;Ghost Writer&nbsp;offers a glimpse into the lives of characters intertwined by blood and ties that bind - and suffocate.&nbsp;

A young dancer who has undergone traditional training feels dislocated within her artistic practice in her home country. A new expatriate wife detached from her immediate reality draws inspiration from the writings of stranger

Ghost Writer (2016)

1963. A young painter is forced to abandon his family and his art when he is embroiled in the tumultuous politics of the era.

1987. Three writers are detained by the Internal Security Bureau, each making different choices that will leave indelible marks on their lives.

2016. Artists occupy a derelict building in a bid to present their works free from state intervention, but find themselves entangled in market and personal politics instead.

2024. Successors of a theatre company discover that it has 

Manifesto (2016)

Najib Soiman

Young love birds Claudio and Hero are about to be married. On the&nbsp;eve of their wedding, Claudio comes to the conclusion that Hero was&nbsp;unfaithful to her. The next day, Hero is humiliated at the altar and dies&nbsp;from grief.

Meanwhile, his cousin Beatrice is at loggerheads with Benedick. Both&nbsp;are perfectly suited for each other but are in denial. The others plot&nbsp;to get them together, and the couple is tricked into confessing their&nbsp;feelings for each other.

Adapted from Shakespe

Ma'ma Yong - About Nothing Much To Do (2015)

Wild Rice

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 (2015)

In a city that’s preparing to market itself as a world-class resort spa, Dr. Thomas Chee&nbsp;discovers that the water supply is riddled with bacteria. He resolves to go public with the information. It’s a decision that pits him against his entire community. Overnight, he finds himself drowning in a storm of protests from the government, media, businesses, and even his family. Suddenly, Dr. Chee is the enemy of the people – the man who insists on telling truths that no one wants to hear.

One of the world

Public Enemy (2015)

In&nbsp;untitled women number one,&nbsp;two women talk about their relationships, their past and future. Featuring Edith Podesta and Ethel Yap, the play looks at the notions of pain, death and interdependence, drawing from stories about gender, sexuality and womanhood.


untitled women number one (2015)

untitled cow number one&nbsp;is about the journey of a widowed cow through 12 days of mourning. Performed by Sharda Harrison and Bani Haykal, the play is influenced by Hindu and Buddhist texts, images and myths, and incorporates physical movement and soundscape.&nbsp;


untitled cow number one (2015)

Will you fight for freedom knowing the inevitable loss ahead?

A mother pins her hopes upon her son, unknowingly hindering his own dreams. A teacher struggles to accept her protégé whose ambitions steer her away from tradition. A writer drawn to his muse faces the reality of their unresolved chapter.

These relationships collide in The Necessary Stage's&nbsp;Gitanjali [I feel the earth move],&nbsp;a brand new interdisciplinary and intercultural production inspired by the writings of Nobel Prize winner R

Gitanjali [I feel the earth move] (2014)

Intercultural Theatre Institute

An original, evocative, multilingual and inter-disciplinary production, devised with ITI’s graduating actors who come from countries as diverse and distant as India, Italy, Bolivia, The Philippines and Singapore. Cloud Messenger tells their stories of living in Singapore, their struggles, joys and challenges, as well as the messages they wish to convey to their loved ones.

This production is a collaboration with some of Singapore’s leading artists such as Bani Haykal, Brian Gothong Tan, Jaclyn Tan, Steve

Cloud Messenger (2014)

The Necessary Stage's latest production by Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma grapples with the issue of road rage.&nbsp;

A unique production involving social media interaction,&nbsp;Poor Thing&nbsp;will invite audiences to watch a video clip of an accident before they enter the theatre to catch the 'live' action on stage.

During the performance, more clips will be posted online which audiences can view and comment on.

Poor Thing&nbsp;challenges you to explore what drives road rage in Singapore.&nbsp;


Poor Thing (2014)

On the cusp of Japan's surrender during World War II, a Japanese general suffers a stroke and is tended to by a Malay gardener. As they spar, having heated debates about the war, the present is revealed: a Japanese man in a relationship with an Indian woman in Kuala Lumpur; his ex-wife coming to grips with an astrologer's predictions; their son, studying in the United States and confronted by his classmates about Japan's past.&nbsp;


Mobile 2: Flat Cities (2013)

Centre 42

A night-hour safehouse for the troubled youths, dropouts, runaways and delinquents of the Malay community is run by a pair of ex-offenders. When external intervention looms, it will take their collective efforts to keep the walls of their home up. Or will they come tumbling down?

Written and directed by Nessa Anwar, Rumah Dayak is an unflinching look at the struggle to guard a home built out of circumstances surrounding poverty, deprivation and abuse. Rumah Dayak is the inaugural production by new collec

Azyyati Alias

PARTICIPATION IN C42

WORKS DOCUMENTED IN THE ARCHIVE

Azyyati Alias

PARTICIPATION IN C42

WORKS DOCUMENTED IN THE ARCHIVE

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