Grand Theft Theatre (Singapore Edition) by Miriam Cheong and Adeeb Fazah

Our project, Grand Theft Theatre, is a devised theatrical performance based on interviews collected from theatre folk, other arts industry workers, art-interested audiences, and general members of the public, to recreate and depict pivotal moments in Singapore theatre. The concept is borrowed from the show of the same name by award-winning Australian experimental theatre collective Pony Cam.

We envision Grand Theft Theatre to be a tongue-in-cheek, trans-genre work that employs devices ranging from lo-fi retellings of iconic theatre history events, parodic songs referencing landmark productions, to sincere emotional moments, to form a quirky yet heartfelt ode to the Singapore theatre community.

For this stage of the project in 2025, we are planning for a 1-hour showcase of the work, with a view to a full-length, 90-minute experience in 2026. This timeline aims to align with SG60 as well, as we want to highlight the ever-relevant themes of history and heritage against the backdrop of a Singapore that is increasingly anxious about forgetting our collective cultural roots. 

The process will be guided through cross-cultural collaboration with Pony Cam, a theatre collective based in Melbourne, Australia. They are driven to create experiences that could not otherwise be had, through a horizontal devising methodology emphasizing equal contributions from all members of the devising group. In their words, they have a “desire to reimagine our impact in the world, find joy in community, remain utterly silly and laugh in the face of tragedy”. Pony Cam will be onboard as consultants for the devising process in 2025.

For this project, we want to collaborate and learn from Pony Cam’s creative, experimental methodology to spark fresh new ways of creating exciting theatrical experiences in Singapore, which we feel is not so common anymore in today’s Singapore theatre scene. Rather than simply import their show to Singapore, we hope to adopt Pony Cam’s methodology to devise a work that is local in flavour yet international in artistic outlook, thereby creating a work that has the potential to excite and attract new audiences to the Singapore theatre.