Making a Scene: Adaptations in Theatre
Making a Scene: Pathways for Chinese Language Theatre in Singapore
Making a Scene
Making a Scene: Pathways for Chinese Language Theatre in Singapore
Reflections and hopes from three Artistic Directors
Pathways for Chinese language theatre in Singapore
How do we understand and situate Chinese culture as well as Chinese language theatre in a multicultural society like Singapore? What is the baggage around education of actors, of (young) audiences if one is committed to creating Chinese language theatre? And are we in fact at a point of crisis in this field, or is there hope to be found in the various intertwining pathways that local practitioners are pursuing or dreaming of undertaking?
In this episode of Making A Scene, three artistic directors from prominent theatre companies in Singapore reflect on their companies’ and their own relationship with Chinese language theatre, with reference to their works at Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2024. Oliver Chong of The Finger Players (TFP), Koh Hui Ling of Drama Box (DB) and Nelson Chia of Nine Years Theatre (NYT) also sketch out the contours of future theatre pathways they are working on or are hoping for, in this wide-ranging podcast hosted by Singaporean director and dramaturg Chong Gua Khee.
Briefly, the artistic directors’ works at Huayi 2024 are:
- Transplant by TFP, which draws inspiration from various tales in the classic anthology Liaozhai (also known as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) and was, notably, a new collaboration with famed Singaporean metal band RUDRA, pioneer of the ‘Vedic metal’ genre as a tapestry of Indian traditional music, Sanskrit chants and mantras as well as death and black metal music.
- The Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) piece The Dog Who Wasn’t Useful by DB alongside Isabella Chiam, adapted from a podcast of the same title by Canadian writer Daniel Hinds.
- Everything for You by NYT, an original work and sequel of sorts to Between You and Me, a family drama by NYT commissioned by Esplanade that premiered at Huayi 2022.
In starting the conversation, the three highlight the importance of differentiating between the company’s positioning as a Chinese language theatre company (or not), and their own individual inclinations and desires as theatre practitioners. For instance, even as TFP works similarly to a collective (and in fact restructured in 2018 to become “closer to a collective for the long haul”), Oliver shared that ultimately “the language that each creator [at TFP] chooses to use is up to the creators”. That is, what language is used in TFP's works comes down to the question of “which language is most comfortable for each individual”, rather than there being a specific company directive.
All three also spoke of some of the unique tensions and struggles around working with/in Mandarin in making performances in Singapore, including the vast range of different registers of Mandarin. Nelson and Hui Ling highlighted how many people in Singapore, especially the younger generation, are less able to process Mandarin as a language a consequence, perhaps, of being a multicultural society that uses English as the common language in schools and workplaces.
Against this backdrop, Nelson noted the uniquely important role that subtitles take on for Chinese language theatre in Singapore, while Hui Ling shared her experience of feeling a certain “baggage” around Chinese TYA, where she could not help but ask herself and the team how the work can support Mandarin language learning in some way for the audience. In response, Gua Khee observed that these challenges are shared by other practitioners who work with non-English languages in Singapore, and that there are valuable learnings to be gleaned from observing each other’s ideas and initiatives.
Looking towards the future, Hui Ling, Nelson and Oliver highlighted their intertwined hopes for performances that can bring together the different generations of theatremakers and performers in Chinese language theatre, as well as for more people to appreciate the unique place of Chinese and each mother tongue and culture within Singapore’s multicultural society.
In grappling with the complexity of such “worlds within worlds” while still actively dreaming about possible pathways for Chinese language theatre in Singapore, questions become “bigger and bigger and more and more interesting”, as Nelson noted, but also while “we are still very young in the exploration, we have a lot to offer”. Indeed, in the past decade since Drama Box published SCENES: A Hundred Years of Singapore Chinese Language Theatre 1913 – 2013 in 2013, much has already developed, and much more is surely to come.
