As part of Spring Collection 2025/2026: New Plays from Centre 42, the End-of-Residency Presentations mark the culmination of two years of artistic exploration within the Playwrights’ Professional Development Residency (2024–2026). Emerging from this period are four strikingly original plays, developed by the playwrights through sustained research, writing, and experimentation.

Amitha Pagolu explores how women across time and space rehearse questions of belonging to themselves; Raimi Safari traces the joys, tensions, and rituals of a group of Malay Muslim women as they navigate deeply held taboos with grace and humour; Choy Chee Yew examines a political family confronting the legacy of violence embedded in their lineage; and Sab Dzulkifli follows a young mother who turns to camgirling in search of desire, visibility, and selfhood.

Read on to learn more about each work, and sign up for the Insider’s Club to receive invitations and updates for Spring Collection 2025/2026.

7 March (3PM & 8PM)

Becoming Shadows

by Choy Chee Yew

Peter is a powerful politician who’s trying his best to serve the nation, his constituents, and his loving family. He’s holding it together the best he can. Isn’t he? So why’s his troubled son hiding in his room all the time, turning into one of those anti-social men you read about on the news? And why are grieving mothers yelling at him during his meet the people sessions? He’s so angry all the time, but he’s got to keep a lid on it, because his family has a dark relationship with anger. Some say violence is a bit of a family curse. True enough, after a night of horrifying brutality, the house of cards comes tumbling down as the demons of Peter’s past finally catch up.

Playwright: Choy Chee Yew
Director: Mingyu Lin
Cast: Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin, Matthias Teh, Coco Wang Ling

Four persons seated on chairs, facing each other and speaking. They are holding scripts.

The cast (from left) Matthias Teh, Coco Wang Ling, Lim Kay Siu, and Neo Swee Lin performing the first scene in Becoming Shadows.

Four persons standing and smiling. Another person to the left gestures widely at them.

Curtain call for Becoming Shadows.

Three persons seated in a row in chairs, speaking to one another.

Talkbacks were conducted after both readings of Becoming Shadows, where playwright Chee Yew took questions from the audience, shared about his writing process, and discussed his experience with the Playwright's Professional Development Residency.

13 March (8PM) & 14 March (3PM)

XX Days to Disaster

by Sab Dzulkifli

Under the warm glow of social media, Nabiha is a stand-up mum, a good wife to a hot husband, and an exemplary Muslim woman. She’s got a good corporate job, and is an ace at the workplace. Nabiha is also one of the hottest cam-girls on OnlyFans, driven by impulses she doesn’t fully understand: a need to act out? A need to ravish, or be ravished? To feel at home in her body again? When the veneer starts to crack, and an envious co-worker circles close to the truth, Nabiha must figure out the hardest question of all: what does she really want?

Playwright: Sab Dzulkifli
Director: Isabella Chiam
Cast: Shafiqhah Efandi, Tysha Khan, Misha Paule Tan, Al-Matin Yatim

Four persons seated and standing under a spotlight, reading from scripts.

The cast reading Scene 9 of XX Days to Disaster. The presentation consisted of eight fully performed scenes and four scenes where the cast read summaries of the events intended to occur in those scenes.

Three persons seated closely together in front of an audience, talking.

The presentation was followed by a talkback with playwright Sab Dzulkifli and playwright mentors Jean Tay and Joel Tan. Sab discussed their writing process, focusing on time constraints that prevented them from completing the play and thoughts on how the script will be further developed.

Five people standing in a row in front of a bookshelf, smiling.

We'd like to thank the team that made this reading of XX Days to Disaster possible - (from left) Al-Matin Yatim, Shafiqhah Efandi, Misha Paule Tan, director Isabella Chiam, and Tysha Khan.

14 March (8PM) & 15 March (3PM)

this body is (never) truly yours

by Amitha Pagolu

What does it mean for a woman to truly belong to herself? Can her body, her desires, her freedom, ever exist outside the conditioning gaze of patriarchy? How deeply does that gaze live inside her, and what happens when she fixes that gaze onto other women? Told in a dazzling array of vignettes across time and place, this experimental new play asks these questions through micro-dramas that range from art history classes and bachelorette parties, school playgrounds and kitchens, excavating the deeply unsettling politics lurking underneath the most everyday of scenarios.

Playwright: Amitha Pagolu
Director: Tan Shou Chen
Cast: Kysha Ashreen, Serene Chen, Tejas Hirah, Dalifah Shahril, Matthias Teh, Coco Wang Ling

Four female-presenting persons standing in a row in front of music stands.

Four of the cast reading Scene 14 of this body is (never) truly yours. The play consisted of 16 vignettes, each featuring different situations, characters, and narratives.

A male-presenting person gestures enthusiastically at six people standing in a row.

Playwright mentor Joel Tan introducing the cast during curtain call - (from left) Tejas V Hirah, Dalifah Shahril, Serene Chen, Kysha Ashreen, Coco Wang Ling, and Matthias Teh.

Three persons seated in chairs, talking.

During the post-presentation talkback, playwright Amitha shared about the real-life events that inspired the play (the Pélicot rape case), how her approach to the vignettes has evolved over time, and the inclusion of both realist and abstract scenes.

28 March (8PM) & 29 March (4PM)

by Raimi Safari

A ritual of ablution unfolds on stage, summoning an ensemble of Malay Muslim women who confront the meanings of their bodies. There, through inter-generational stories of family, faith, and coming of age, they find joy, rage, pleasure, shame, blood, and water in equal measure. Formally restless, raucous, and irreverent, this play takes us through a dazzling mix of lyrical confession, mythic gameshows, domestic drama, pantun contests, and elegiac physical theatre to build a collage of the many dimensions of Malay Muslim womanhood.

Playwright: Raimi Safari
Director: Rizman Putra
Cast: Siti Khalijah, Moli Mohter, Farah Ong, Suhaillah Salam, Dalifah Shahril

Five female-presenting persons in long black abayas, gesturing to an audience in a black box theatre.

P was presented as a series of vignettes, narratively distinct but tied together by the theme of Malay-Muslim womanhood. In this scene, the cast engaged in audience interaction, encouraging audience members to chant specific words in tandem with the onstage 'orchestra'.

Five female-presenting persons in long black abayas standing in a row in front of an audience, smiling.

Curtain call for P, featuring the cast (from left) Suhaillah Salam, Farah Ong, Dalifah Shahril, Moli Mohter, and Siti Khalijah.

Three persons seated in chairs, spotlit, in front of an audience.

During the post-presentation talkbacks, Raimi discussed his desire and motivation to write P, especially with regards to centring women and womanhood in the narrative. He also spoke with residency mentors Jean Tay and Joel Tan about the writing process and overall residency experience.

Spring Collection 2025/2026: New Plays from Centre 42

Start: 7 March 2026

Playwright's Professional Development Residency 2024 - 2026

Start: 1 February 2024