Now Playing
A Good Death
01:26:06
Now Playing
Harap (Hope)
01:18:25
Now Playing
Transplant
19:54
Time taken : >15mins
Premieres 10 Oct 2025, 12pm
Available online until 31 Mar 2026, 11.59pm
The solemnity and finality of a funeral is cracked wide open in Kuo Pao Kun’s The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole, when the protagonist discovers at the cemetery that his grandfather’s ornate, traditional coffin won’t fit into the standard-sized hole dug for it.
Death has a way of surfacing conflicts or desires long suppressed in life, as seen in this pivotal moment in the 1985 monologue, a Singapore theatre classic. Death may also be a burden we carry, or a source of fear due to the porousness of the line separating it from life.
In these recordings of works staged variously in English, Malay and Mandarin, Singapore theatremakers continue to plumb the terminal and the existential, using approaches from ethnography to puppetry, and tonal shifts from realism to the surreal and absurd. Two are adaptations: Zulfadli Rashid transposed Haresh Sharma’s 1994 English-language play Hope into Malay for Harap (2017), an emotionally-charged study of lives in a downward spiral, while Oliver Chong created the provocative Transplant (2024) by adapting the supernatural stories of Liaozhai (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), a Chinese literary classic that is well over two centuries old.
Playwright Faith Ng completes this troika of works on the themes of life, death and the in-between with A Good Death (2018), an engaging monodrama on end-of-life issues and the weight of caregiving.
Texts by Clarissa Oon and Woo Yu Ning
An Esplanade Commission and Production
Written by Faith Ng, directed by Chen Yingxuan (Singapore)
A Good Death offers an intimate look at the daily life of a palliative care doctor, Dr Leong, who juggles the demands of her emotionally taxing job, as well as her journey as a caretaker for her father suffering from dementia. It was presented in 2018 as part of The Studios, Esplanade’s contemporary theatre showcase, where the theme that year was Between Living and Dying.
Playwright Faith Ng and director Chen Yingxuan have sensitively and empathetically navigated this grave topic through a collaborative process of interviewing palliative care doctors, nurses, social workers and therapists for their experiences, in order to bring this production to life.
In this one-woman show, seasoned actress Karen Tan plays a whole ensemble of characters who interact with Dr Leong, disappearing as she does into each unique individual. They range from a playful old man who makes light of his weighty life experiences, to her own father who slips in and out of distorted memories.
In this full-length archival recording, we see a complex character battered by the weight of her professional and personal responsibilities yet soldiering on doggedly regardless. Dr Leong asks the difficult questions others refrain from asking: what makes life worth living? Is there a “best” way when it comes to end-of-life care? What should we make of human connections, when we are faced with the diaphanous threshold of life and death?
Playwright: Faith Ng
Director: Chen Yingxuan
Producer: Lynn Yang, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Performer: Karen Tan
Lighting Designer: Adrian Tan
Sound Designer: Ryann Othniel Seng
Set Designer: Eucien Chia
Set Designer Assistant: Grace Lin
Costume Stylist: Anthony Tan
Movement Coach: Lim Chin Huat
Production Manager: Evelyn Chia, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Assistant Production Manager: Cristabel Ng, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Stage Manager: Sheri Hogan
Assistant Stage Manager: Joyce Gan
Captions: Chong Gua Khee
Surtitles: Chua Ying Ni
An Esplanade Co-production
By Teater Ekamatra (Singapore)
Written by Haresh Sharma, adapted by Zulfadli Rashid, directed by Mohd Fared Jainal (Singapore)
In Malay with English subtitles
Staged as part of The Studios’ Margins, a 2017 season of plays by acclaimed homegrown playwright Haresh Sharma, Harap is playwright Zulfadli Rashid’s Malay-language adaptation of Sharma’s 1994 original. This is the full archival recording of the work.
Dead bodies are found in the Singapore River, their numbers increasing by the day. The mystery of this occurrence lingers over the plot of Harap, where two separate groups of characters find their lives intersecting, and develop unlikely bonds with one another.
The first group is a pair of friends, Hadi and Azman. Their lives are sent reeling in the aftermath of a car crash which puts Azman (Fir Rahman) in a comatose state, and Hadi (Hirzi Zulkiflie) nursing a guilt complex at having caused the accident but escaping unscathed. The second group is a family of three in financial ruin, owing to father Hairul’s (Sani Hussin) vices which shatter his family psychologically.
With a title that speaks of characters trudging through endlessly bleak circumstances, the play incisively explores existential topics in their rawest form. Hope in a fast-developing city like Singapore is nebulous, flitting in between states of somnambulism when reality becomes gradually insurmountable.
Playwright: Haresh Sharma
Director: Mohd Fared Jainal
Adaptation by: Zulfadli Rashid
Cast
Sani Hussin
Fir Rahman
Hirzi Zulkiflie
Siti Hajar Abd Gani
Nur Zakiah Bte Mohd Fared
Set Designer: Akbar Syadiq
Lighting Designer: Stella Cheung
Sound Designer: Bani Hakyal
Video Designer: Eric Lee
Producer: Shaza Ishak
Production Manager / Assistant Stage Manager: Sazali Hussain
Stage Manager: Khairina Khalid
Stage Assistant: Irfan Kasban
Surtitle Operator: Syarifah Azari
An Esplanade Co-Production
By The Finger Players x RUDRA
Written & directed by Oliver Chong (Singapore)
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Adapted from famous Chinese supernatural anthology Liaozhai, also known as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Transplant 《移心》incorporates elements of puppetry and Vedic metal music to tell a story of human greed and carnal desire. This is an excerpt of the archival recording of the work, staged at Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2024.
A literati family hides their dirty laundry beneath the polished veneer of their home. Tensions are already running high between the delirious, bedridden elderly matriarch; an unfaithful husband who denies his infidelity, Tai Yuan (Alvin Chiam); his resentful and estranged wife, Jiang Cheng (Jo Kwek); and their less-than accomplished son, Yuan Feng (Neo Hai Bin).
With the new addition of a beautiful damsel-demoness, Ah Xiu (Ellison Tan), whom Tai Yuan employs as a domestic helper, familial trust is further fragmented as both father and son become besotted with her.
With a thrilling metal soundtrack by the legendary Vedic metal band RUDRA performed live during the play, Transplant weighs compulsively on your psyche. Puppets artfully choreographed by The Finger Players, Singapore’s oldest contemporary puppetry theatre company, blur the line between life and lifelessness, gripping us through this psychological descent into madness.
Playwright, Director and Set Designer: Oliver Chong
Sonic Design and Live Musical Accompaniment: RUDRA
Lighting Designer: Gabriel Chan
Costume Designer: Loo An Ni
Puppet Designer: Daniel Sim
Puppet Fabricator: Prop-erly
Prop Master and Puppet Maintenance: Marilyn Ang
System Designer and Sound Engineer: Lee Yew Jin
Sound Associate: Jean Yap
Performers / Puppeteers
Alvin Chiam
Ellison Tan
Jo Kwek
Neo Hai Bin
Angelina Chandra
Myra Loke
Vanessa Toh
Production Manager: Celestine Wong
Technical Manager: Ian Tan
Set Coordinator: Bernice Ong;
Stage Manager: Tennie Su
Assistant Stage Managers: Alethea Koh, Natalie Wong
Wardrobe Mistress: Chua Jia Ling
Script Translation to English: Ellison Tan
Surtitle Operator: Teo Pei Si
Hair and Make-up Artist: Cherylynn (Cat Scratch SFX)
Hair and Make-up Assistant: Hanani
Key Visual Photographer: Crispian Chan
Key Visual Design: Ang Lee Cheng (iimaging LLP), Ang Ying Xian
Trailer Videographer: Jai Rafferty
Trailer Editor: Tan Wei Ting
Trailer Colourist: Lim Zhee Yen
Special Thanks: Drama Box, Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay, Geralyn Toh, Geraldine Ang, Lim Chin Huat, Hong Leong Foundation, Rachel Nip
Connect with luminaries and compelling stories from Singapore and the region’s performing arts history through Esplanade's first extensive release from its rich archives and those of longstanding artistic collaborators. Experience over 30 full recordings, films and excerpts of performances, across nine thematic collections. Available on Esplanade Offstage from 10 Jul 2025 to 31 Mar 2026. Find out more.
If you’ve enjoyed Replay – Screenings from the Esplanade Archives, help us do more. With as little as one dollar, you can support Esplanade’s mission to make the arts accessible to everyone through original content and gems from our archives, freely available online. As a charity and not-for-profit organisation, every contribution helps keep the arts alive and within reach for all.
Support usContributed by:
Clarissa Oon is Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s Head of Digital & Content (Marketing) as well as an arts writer and former journalist.
Woo Yu Ning is an English Literature major at Nanyang Technological University. When she’s not tackling her never-ending reading list, she can be found biking through Singapore.
