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BT/NEWS/PAGES<BTS-023> COVER STORY | 23 The Business Times | Friday, January 2, 2015 TheTHEATRE finest plays in 50 years Singapore theatre has struggled against the odds to find and assert its own voice. BY HELMI YUSOF N especially the past three dec- ades, local theatre has grown from strength to strength, with Imore professional theatre com- panies now putting on top-notch productions that easily ri- val the once-technically superior im- ported musicals that used to domi- nate our stage. Despite the spectre of censorship Drying Salted Fish by Cheong Soo Pieng (above), Lim Mu Hue’s woodcut art (below, right) and Kumari Nahappan’s Nutmeg at ION and the lack of strong, original Orchard (bottom) are eloquent examples of the works of Singapore scripts, local theatre has successfully artists pushing the art envelope through the decades. FILE PHOTOS pushed on to find and assert its voice. Here are 10 plays which, among others, broke major ground in VISUAL ART the telling of our stories: When Smiles Are Done (1966) Works that captured By Goh Poh Seng Goh, along with Lim Chor Pee (Mimi the imagination Fan), was Singapore’s first local play- wright. When Smiles Are Done centres on family life in Queenstown and is By Cheah Ui-Hoon one of the earliest attempts to repre- The first blockbuster in [email protected] sent Singlish on stage. Goh spent a the local theatre history, PAINTINGS and three-dimensional year and a half “hanging around pub- Michael Chiang’s Army art in the form of sculptures are a lic places with a tape recorder and lis- Daze (above), a big part of Singapore’s history tening to how people spoke”. coming-of-age story about which have done much to give us a five army recruits bonding sense of space and time. We pick Emily of Emerald Hill (1985) during National Service is 10 iconic works from the past 50 By Stella Kon still very popular today. years: Margaret Chan in Emily of Possibly the most staged classic in Emerald Hill (left, 1985) Drying Salted Fish by the Singapore canon, Emily of Emer- and Tan Kheng Hua in ald Hill is a one-woman monologue Cheong Soo Pieng (1978) Fear of Writing (right, This piece is also on the back of that chronicles the rise and fall of a 2012) delivered two of the Singapore’s 50-dollar note, and is a Peranakan woman, from a naive most memorable classic example of the early style of young bride to a steely matriarch. Its performances in Singapore’s pioneer artists who em- 1985 Singapore debut was directed Singapore’s theatre igrated from China. They captured by Max Le Blond and featured a pow- history. FILE PHOTOS rural Malayan landscapes and erhouse performance by Margaret trades, often in Chinese ink style Chan. and on paper. Cheong was part of Hong Sek Chern’s Void Deck in 8 Wills & Secession (1995) the development of the Nanyang scrolls/panels is a Chinese ink Army Daze (1987) Sharma is Singapore’s most prolific essary – plays of all time, Charged, By Eleanor Wong playwright, having written more than takes a raw and unflinching look at School together with Chen Chong work that alludes to the HDB com- By Michael Chiang mon space, but is actually the inte- In the second play of Wong’s trilogy 100 plays in 24 years. Several are ac- race relations in Singapore through Swee, Georgette Chen, Chen Wen The first blockbuster in the local thea- rior of an empty MRT station. Bridg- Invitation To Treat, lesbian lawyer El- claimed, including Still Building, the murder of a Malay soldier and the Hsi and Liu Kang. tre history, Chiang’s coming-of-age et Tracy Tan, director ofNafa’s In- len struggles to cope with her ageing Off-Centre and Good People – all of consequent suicide of a Chinese one. story about five army recruits bond- stitutestitute ofof SoutheastSoutheast A AsiansianAr Artsts & parents and sick girlfriend. Ellen is which are directed by his partner-in- The ensuing investigation unearths ing during National Service is still Chua Mia Tee’s National Art Galleries, notes how the paint- shown as facing problems that are no crime Alvin Tan. Fundamentally Hap- the faultlines that exist in the army. Language Class (1959) very popular today, staged frequent- ing incorporates Sek Chern’s signa- different from those facing heterosex- py is one of his finest, tackling the ta- ly by companies and schools. It’s ual Singaporeans, as Wong seeks to This worj captures the zeitgeist of ture style of architectural perspec- boo topic of paedophilia with extraor- Fear of Writing (2012) loved for its broad humour and una- point out the obvious to the oblivious By Tan Tarn How the 1950s and 1960s as Singapore tives, her Chinese ink background dinary grace and sensitivity. was transitioning into Independ- and uniquely Singapore spaces. bashed use of Singlish. – that gay people are people too. It’s not so much a story as a complex ence. A fine example of Social Real- This work was brought to the Sao series of fragments about a play- Lear (1999) Nadirah (2009) ist work, the ideology it espouses Paulo Biennial in 2002. Mama Looking For Her Cat wright facing writer’s block while try- By Rio Kishida and Ong Keng Sen By Alfian Sa’at is anti-colonial as well as nationalis- (1988) ing to write a play about opposition By Kuo Pao Kun Few local plays have inspired as Often called an enfant terrible for his tic. Art must reflect life, believed leader Chee Soon Juan. Kumari Nahappan (2000s) many critical writings as Lear, outspoken views and bold plays such Chua, who came to Singapore in Kuo is regarded as one of Singapore’s Directed by Ong Keng Sen, its man- penned by Kishida and directed by as Cooling-Off Day and the Asian Boys 1937 and attendedNafa from 1952 Kumari Nahappan is noted for her greatest dramatists ever. Mama Look- ifold themes – among them, state cen- signature and iconic, monumental Ong. trilogy, Alfian showed off the pro- to 1957. ing For Her Cat (1988) is the country’s sorship, self-censorship, political public art sculptures. The giant The Shakespeare-based play found humanity of his writing with first multilingual play, with dialogue fear, the love of a father for his daugh- bronze chilli-pepper, Pedas Pedas blended Japanese Noh theatre, Bei- Nadirah, a complex and nuanced dra- spoken in English, Malay, Mandarin, ter – add up to what feels like an im- Woodcut art (2006) was commissioned by the jing opera, Thai classical dance, and ma about a young Muslim woman Tamil, Hokkien, Cantonese and Teo- portant summation work at Tan’s This art form has a special place in National Museum of Singapore, as Indonesian gamelan and silat to mag- born to a Muslim father and a Chi- chew. It showed Singapore as a multi- nificent effect – an intercultural mas- mid-point career. More than any oth- Singapore art history, where the well as the Saga (2007) at Changi nese mother. cultural country through its story terpiece that marked Ong as an er work in the Singapore canon, it first art exhibition dedicated to the Airport and the Nutmeg (2009) at about the rift between a Hokk- questions the point and purpose of medium was held in 1966, and fea- ION Orchard. avant-garde trailbrazer. Charged (2010) ien-speaking mother and her Eng- making theatre in Singapore. tured the work of Lim Yew Kuan, By Chong Tze Chien lish-educated children. Fundamentally Happy (2006) [email protected] Tan Tee Chid, Lim Mu Hue, See Koh Nguang How (1980s) By Haresh Sharma One of the most incendiary – and nec- @HelmiBT Cheen Tee, Choo Keng Kwang and Foo Chee San, most of whom were Koh Nguang How’s installations de- teachers at Nafa. Chinese Puppet rived from his Singapore Art Ar- Theatre by Lim Mu Hue captured a chive Project (SAAP), is an unparal- BOOKS traditional art form in the Repub- leled artist making cultural history lic. his aesthetic material, thus chart- ing as well the developments of the nation. Koh’s documentation of the Tomes that show us how we live The Orchid (1970s) Artists Village between 1989 and The orchid is Singapore’s national 1999 has become a significant his- flower and its painterly likeness torical resource, says June Yap, in- By Helmi Yusof torical details and social commentary was best captured in the 1970s, by dependent curator and Curator of [email protected] to chronicle the lives of Eurasian char- Sarkasi Said, using batik painting Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art In- @HelmiBT acters from the 1950s to the 1980s. on textile. Singapore’s “baron of itiative. SINGAPORE literature has been criti- batik’s” public work is at Seran- Abraham’s Promise (1995) cal in showing us how we’ve lived in goon MRT Station, while his batik Status (2009) the past 50 years, from the nascent By Philip Jeyaretnam dresses are sold under Tzee Crea- Status by Jane Lee is part of the Sin- nation-building days to the era of una- Jeyaretnam’s last novel is ostensibly tion. gapore Art Museum collection and bashed capitalism to today’s glo- a story of an old teacher looking back it’s a contemporary take on the balised inter-connected realities. at his life – his early political involve- Wealth and Contentment age-old medium of painting. She’s Here are 10 books first published ment, marriage and poor relationship (1978) with his son. But it could easily be used the tactile structure and quali- in English which, among many oth- The companion ladies’ pieces by read as an allegory of Singapore and ty of paint to form the canvas itself.
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