We live in a moment when the ground beneath familiar structures, ideas and ideals keeps moving, and with unprecedented speed. The fracture and shapelessness of our world today has left many of us navigating without a clear map. Borders are redrawn, allegiances are in flux, truths are contested. 

In this disorienting landscape, questions of power feel newly urgent. Who holds it, and how is it exercised? What conditions enable it to take root, and what makes change possible?

As a universal idea, power resonates across time, geography, culture and personal circumstance. It is evocative precisely because it is lived. Each person encounters and understands it through their own experience, their own moment in history. We see and feel its effects daily. It is solid and imposing, fluid and multi-faceted.

As a concept, it is so often flattened, and immediately conjures up specific meanings, associated images, and visceral responses. How, then, do we approach power in a meaningful way, that might offer a fresh perspective or proposition? 

Over the next three years, The Studios, an annual theatre season presented by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, will explore its many manifestations, as the world around us continues to shift.

We begin with Precarious Bodies. The season, which runs from 24 Jul to 6 Sep, looks at the conditions, structures and relationships that render us precarious, the dilemmas that arise and the choices we make.

The precarious ‘body’ is a socially constructed entity shaped by culture, circumstance and perception, both public and personal. We are made precarious by the actions of others and we cause others to be precarious with the relative power we each wield. The consequences or impact of these actions are sometimes only visible with the passing of time, or felt only by the most vulnerable. We are also drawn to potential, especially in the fragile, liminal space just before action or change. While that potential always holds the risk of harm, it equally harbours the possibility of empathy, care and courage.

Precarious Bodies is an invitation to audiences to consider what it means to be precarious and to find their own interpretations of and relationships with power. The five productions this season bring to the fore our interconnectedness as human beings, whether we stand as individuals, communities, or part of systems and ideologies. Through diverse forms of theatre: documentary theatre, video, text, music, movement and social experiment, these works invite us to consider the complex workings of power, its effects through different bodies and contexts and the roles we play within them.

We open the season with Fragments of Tuah (Mark Teh & Five Arts Centre, Malaysia), examining the mythologised figure of Hang Tuah, peeling the layers of the composite image of a hero that continues to embody national values and Malay identity in Malaysia. The work questions the gaps, contradictions and erasures that have led to the veneration of this legend.

We encounter bodies under surveillance and confinement in Blind Runner (Amir Reza Koohestani & Mehr Theatre Group, Iran), where the strained relationship between an imprisoned political activist and her husband contrasts with the bond he forms with a blind marathon runner. As one relationship breaks down and another blooms, a risky plan emerges, shaped by struggle, solidarity and our instinct to make a run towards freedom.

The power dynamics at the workplace comes into focus in MULTIPLE BAD THINGS (Back to Back Theatre, Australia), where privilege and self-preservation test the limits of our bodies and our capacity to care. Idle chitchat descends into manipulation, words are used as weapons to marginalise and belittle, and apathy reigns. Unfolding with sardonic humour, we see our worst behaviours on unapologetic display.

MONSTRESS (Claire Teo & ART:DIS, Singapore) confronts what we choose not to see in everyday life and exposes the behaviours we justify. It tells the story of a blind girl, an autistic boy and his struggling mother who gravitate towards one another, while navigating a world and systems that lack compassion and ignore their realities.

As a counterpoint to the controlled or constrained bodies we encounter this season, we round up with Handle with Care (Ontroerend Goed, Belgium). With no actors, no technicians and just a box, the audience creates its own unique, unrepeatable experience. What would happen if we were to cast convention and certainty aside for a while, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable to, and in turn, be responsible for strangers in the same space?

As always, our companion programmes for the season offer perspectives on the questions that will arise as we contemplate the nature of power and precariousness. We are honoured to provide the opportunity for all the artists in the season to speak directly with our audiences outside of performances, and to share personally their practice and lived experiences. Amongst them are international award winners and highly respected performance makers who have made significant impact on their respective communities.

This season, we invite you to take a collective first step into a new trilogy as fellow precarious bodies. We look forward to many insightful conversations, as we connect, listen and imagine new possibilities together.

Shireen Abdullah
Senior Producer
The Esplanade Co Ltd

Eclectic, genre-bending and running the gamut from neo-realism to experimental, The Studios features works that challenge the boundaries in theatre and performance. It is interested in contemporary artists, ideas and expressions, and offers a space for dialogue and reflection on the questions that matter to us today.