Streamed online from 23 May, Sat, 3pm to 29 May, Fri, 11.59pm

In 2020, The Studios released its inaugural digital season from 16 May–12 Jun 2020 in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The online event celebrates Singapore theatre and its development over the years, albeit without the visceral sense of community one experiences physically, in the hallowed black box filled with expressions of humanity.

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, among many other national and entertainment institutions, shut its doors for the first time in history, as measures to stem the spread of the disease, such as limiting the number of people who could gather in groups and physical distancing, proved insufficient. The closure of the arts centre and Singapore's two-month circuit breaker coincided with The Studios annual season originally slated for 25 Mar–26 Apr 2020. 

The Studios Online featured six productions drawn from Esplanade's archives based on connections to the artists of the 2020 season. They were chosen for their resonant thematic threads, as well as for being relevant to some of the wider conversations that have emerged from reflections on Covid-19 and our society. In the last week of the four-week period, The Studios released two new and original works caught in the heart of the situation: a recorded edition of Lost Cinema 20/20 by Brian Gothong Tan and an audio presentation of The Heart Comes to Mind by Checkpoint Theatre.

By Edith Podesta (Singapore / Australia)
An Esplanade commission 

Originally staged from 28 Apr–1 May 2016 as part of The Studios 2016

"Imprisonment is as irrevocable as death."
George Bernard Shaw

Dark Room follows the lives of men housed together in a five-by-five-metre cell, 23 hours a day, every day, until their release. This original work, based on true accounts, explores the codes and regulations of society “on the inside”. It charts the prison experience from pre-trial to imprisonment, and the reintegration into society as “returning citizens”.

If “prison is the punishment that keeps on taking”, Dark Room gives voice to the incarcerated by staging their stories and making their experiences visible to a wider audience.

Dark Room was first presented as a work-in-progress as part of The Studios RAW in 2014. The development of this second iteration titled Dark Room was supported by Centre 42’s Basement Workshop programme.

Read Today's review of the performance.

By Cake Theatrical Productions
Written and directed by Natalie Hennedige 
In collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Originally staged from 26–28 April 2007

“What a deceptively modest title this spectacular multi-faceted play has. Nothing is about love and death. A lot could have gone wrong in such potentially hackneyed territory, but little did in this punchy, dynamic work with a bold DIY aesthetic....    

With its kitsch-on-speed aesthetic and the gravity of its themes, Nothing provides no simple answers, but it pulls off a brilliantly crafted journey....”  

Something out of Nothing: An ace script and brilliant cast tackled issues of love and death. Nothing takes the cake."—The Straits Times Life

See the laundry in the machine. It goes round and round. See your reflection in the glass, you are a great sad clown. Hello Mister. Hello Miss. Where are you off to now? May I join you on your way into the great abyss? I won’t say a single word or get in your way I’ll just be a companion. Grey. It will be a grand nothing day. Say yes. Say.    

Nothing is an intimate observation of love and death. Various characters, some obscure, some mundane, some elusive, in various situations under various circumstances connect, collide and inch forward, moment to moment, beat by beat. Someone lives. Someone dies. Someone laughs. Someone cries. Nothing else. 

I was thinking about Singapore but in a dream-like manner, putting very specific and unusual pictures together. A picture of a woman living with two pugs in a four-room HDB flat. An Environment Agency inspector checking her flat for mosquitoes. How they would fall in love and how he was hiding a serious illness from her. I thought about a writer of erotic Mandarin novels who was also the sole caregiver of her aged father. I thought about how much they despised each other, insulted and riled each other and how when he soiled his diapers, she’d have to clean up the mess… and bear witness to his shame. I thought about how this toxic relationship would end in tragedy. I thought about a married nurse who was having an affair with a doctor at the general hospital where she worked. I thought about her husband who was once a national Taekwondo athlete and how he had descended into constant depression, constant sleep. I thought about how impossible it would be to save their marriage. I thought about other characters too: a soldier; a pregnant teenage toilet cleaner; an international aid worker who wanted to give up her important work, marry an unimpressive man and spend her weekends at VivoCity… and a mother reeling at the senselessness of her 25-year-old son at the prime of his life, dying in a hospice.

At the time I wrote Nothing I was running ragged, but these characters changed that. When they took form on the page and came to life on the rehearsal floor; through their sadness and buffoonery and hopes and fears and dreams, I was able to find a different kind of ground on which to plant my feet.

Streamed live on 27 May 2020, Wednesday

Edith Podesta, director and writer, Dark Room
Associate Artistic Director, young and W!LD

Natalie Hennedige, playwright and director, Nothing
Natalie served as the Artistic Director of Cake before becoming Festival Director Designate for the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

Edith and Natalie look back on these works and share their thoughts on how the themes still resonate today.