Singapore International Festival of Arts 2026: LACRIMA

When the Princess of England announces her engagement, a Parisian haute couture fashion house receives an extraordinary commission and a fascinating story unfolds across continents and generations.

Renowned theater maker Caroline Guiela Nguyen transforms the stage into a bustling workshop floor in this sprawling play about the hands that make the garments we covet. Sworn to complete secrecy, craftspeople around the world embark on eight months of intricate labor in service of a single wedding dress.

Marion, the overworked head seamstress of Maison Beliana, fields tough questions from her troubled daughter, while Thérése, an Alençon lacemaker, comes face to face with a complicated family past. Meanwhile, across the ocean in Mumbai, master embroiderer Abdul fastens 1,000 roses onto duchesse satin as his eyesight rapidly deteriorates.

As these men and women all but obliterate themselves in pursuit of perfection, LACRIMA invites us into the space between that which destroys us and that which gives our lives purpose.