What do you see?
What do you choose to see?

Mei Ling, a blind girl, moves into the apartment beside Melissa and Sam, a single mother and her son, who is autistic.

As their lives brush against one another, they navigate the tensions of adapting to neighbourhood norms, schooling pressures, transport systems and public spaces, where social expectations are rigid, repeated, and rarely questioned. They start to find an unexpected friendship in each other.

But what happens at home, stays at home, doesn’t it?

Behind, between, and beyond the walls of their adjacent HDB flats, pressure builds. The walls seem to be pressing in. Corridors carry them forward, only to bring them back to where they first began. There is movement. But no exit. No reprieve.

By the time something is named,
And help comes running,
It may already be too late.
Not all monsters arrive fully formed.
Some are made.

Written by visually-impaired theatre maker Claire Teo, who draws from lived experience and observation to examine how harm is enabled and overlooked within the systems we trust, MONSTRESS is directed by Yvan Karlsson and performed by Claire Teo, Oon Shu An, Syarifuddin Sahari and Sindhura Kalidas.

The play confronts what we choose not to see in everyday life. It exposes the behaviours we justify, the silences we keep, and the lines we draw between ourselves and others. Unsettlingly familiar, MONSTRESS becomes a mirror, one that dares us to look away.

Moving seamlessly through text, movement, sound, and image, MONSTRESS asks: Why are certain voices dismissed over others? And can we become a community that is ready to offer support, before it is too late?

Join Claire Teo and the creative team behind MONSTRESS for In Conversation: Access as an Artistic Process, Working to Give Everyone a Full Experience (5 Sep) to explore how a production is imagined, designed, and made when access serves as a fundamental guiding principle.

Production Credits

Playwright: Claire Teo
Director: Yvan Karlsson
Dramaturg: Charlene Rajendran
Cast: Claire Teo, Oon Shu An, Syarifuddin Sahari, Sindhura Kalidas
Set Designer: Grace Lin
Lighting Designer: Stella Cheung
Sound Designer: Serene Tan (Stan)
Creative Caption Designer: Joanna Ong
Producer: ART:DIS (Arts & Disability) Singapore
Production Manager: Karisa Poedjirahardjo
Stage Manager: Wisely Chow

Embedded Narration

Embedded narration provides key visual information through descriptive lines woven seamlessly into the dialogue. Soundscapes and amplified movements offer additional information about environment, atmosphere, and intention in each scene.

Touch Tour

A 30-min touch tour will take place before each performance at Esplanade Theatre Studio. The touch tour is primarily recommended for ticket holders who are blind or have low vision, and may also be useful for neurodivergent audience members who would benefit from familiarisation with the performance space, set and key tactile elements of the production.

Interested participants will need to select the ticket category PWD with Touch Tour at the point of purchase from 20 Aug 2026.

4 & 5 Sep: 6.30pm – 7pm

6 Sep: 1.30pm – 2pm

Note:

• Limited capacity.
• Priority is given to PWD patrons, or those who require it.
• Each PWD patron may attend with one accompanying caregiver.
• Patrons may only register for the Touch Tour session happening on the same day that they are watching MONSTRESS.
• Patrons may call our Customer Experience team at +65 6828 8377 (12pm – 6pm daily) to inform us of their access needs prior to the Touch Tour.
• Any other interested observers may write in to boxoffice@esplanade.com and we will inform you if there is any availability.