Sat-Sun, 3pm: $35 Tue-Thu & Sun, 8pm: $40 Fri & Sat, 8pm: $45 Free Seating Available from SISTIC |
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Continuing with its efforts to develop original new Singapore plays, ACTION Theatre is proud to present the premiere production of Postcards from Rosa by award-winning playwright Desmond Sim as part of its Singapore Theatre Oasis programme. A handmade comedy of Peranakan proportions produced by Ekachai Uekrongtham and directed by Loretta Chen, Postcards From Rosa is a hilarious, heartfelt and magical play about a Peranakan grandma from Singapore’s Katong, who decides to go all the way Down Under to visit her grandson after he’s stopped writing her. She carries with her a little suitcase containing a stack of postcards her grandson Benny has sent her from all over the world. Through her grandson, Bibik Rosa has ‘seen’ the Pyramids of Egypt, the Niagra Falls of America, the Big Ben of London, the Great Wall of China – all without ever leaving her little estate Joo Chiat, right in the heart of Katong. For years, they keep in contact through their postcards. Bibik Rosa writes to tell Benny about the good old days. Benny writes to let his grandma know what the future holds. But one day, the postcards from Benny stop arriving. As Rosa is growing old, and a little less sure of “living to a hundred”, she decides to take the trip of her life. There are a few important things she has to personally tell her grandson before her memory becomes too misty from the years’ passing… A magical journey of laughter, hope, tears and discovery, Postcards from Rosa is also about life seen through a pair of cataract-clouded, but still sharp-as-an-eagle Peranakan eyes. Inspired by the memory of the playwright’s own grandmother, this is a most lovingly written Singapore play with an abundance of humour, pathos and beautiful lyricism. Come see it with your whole family and all your friends. Postcards from Rosa opens an enchanting and nostalgic window into one of our nation’s most unique and treasured cultures so we can experience it together in all their warmest glow and most glorious colours.
BIOGRAPHIES DESMOND SIM (Playwright)
Desmond is currently the Director of ACTION Theatre’s Playwriting Spa where he helps hone the skills of local playwrights and assists them in developing original new Singapore plays. He’s also been a lecturer at Temasek Design School since July 2003. Also Singapore’s best-loved Peranakan painter, Desmond has to-date held 7 solo exhibitions and 5 joint ones in Singapore, United Kingdom and Hong Kong. His most recent exhibitions were Senang Peranakan and Baba’s Big Show. In November, he’ll present a collection of his new paintings in a much-waited solo exhibition entitled Adoring the Phoenix. Desmond has three cats and has failed in several attempts to grow exotic orchids. Fortunately, his cats are thriving well.
NEO SWEE LIN (Actress)
Since playing a lead role in Dragon’s Teeth Gate for the Singapore Arts Festival in 1985, her body of work till now has spanned more than 40 roles in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Glasgow, London, Croatia, and America, in theatre, television and film. In Singapore, landmark Classical stage performances include Madam Siet in The Morning People, (an adaption of The Cherry Orchard by Chay Yew); Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Gertrude in Hamlet, Laura in The Glass Menagerie; Kattrin in Mother Courage, Grusha in Caucasian Chalk Circle, Messenger in Medea, and Poncia in House of Bernada Alba. One-woman shows include Emily of Emerald Hill directed by her husband Lim Kay Siu; My Mother’s Chest directed by Kuo Pao Kun; and a double bill of The Coffin is too big for the hole & No Parking on Odd Days, directed by Krishen Jit. Devised Plays include Mama looking for her Cat, The Yang Family, and Ah Kong’s Birthday Party. Modern local productions include Half-Lives for Theatreworks, Love Letters and Drunken Prawns for ACTION Theatre, Who’s afraid of Chow Yun Fat for the Singapore Arts Festival, and M. Butterfly, The Moon Is Less Bright and Army Daze for Theatreworks. She also played the Evil Stepmother in Cinderellah! Musicals include Fried Rice Paradise and Beauty World with Ong Keng Sen and Casey Lim for Theatreworks. Local Films include roles in 12 Stories, Teenage Textbook, and Where Got Problem, and most recently Royston’s Tan short film Cut. Local TV work include Ahma in PCK Pte Ltd, a role which won her the Asian Television Award for Best Comedy Actress in 2000, Dr Liew in My Grandson the Doctor, and many other guest starring roles. She was also co-host of Channel I magazine, Really Something. Most recently she played Maureen in Life. In India, she played Comrade Chin opposite Ivan Heng, in a production that toured 5 cities in India, for TheatreArts. British Stage work include Takeaway, which won Time-Out’s Critics Choice in London in 1998; The Letter, with Joanna Lumley at the Lyric Hammersmith, and Mail Order Bride at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, for which she received rave reviews, acting alongside Timothy West (Messenger) and Mark Addy (Full Monty). She also played Teishi in 3 Japanese Women directed by Glen Goei, and was instrumental in bringing back a Scottish-Singaporean devised play, Trishaw, to the Substation in Singapore after performances in Glasgow, together with Josephine Peter. For the BBC, she played a lead role in A Secret Slave, directed by Sally George in 1995. And in film, she played a featured role in Nightwatch, cast in London, and filmed in Croatia. She also played Lady Jao Jom Manda Ung in Anna and the King.
LORETTA CHEN (Director)
But it is her work as director that she is most proud of. Some of her directing credits in London include Everyman; A Mouthful of Birds and One for the Road. In Singapore, she’s directed 13 Shaolin, 24 Pieties,10 Brothers garnered 4 nominations at the Life Theatre Awards), a sold-out run of The Vagina Monologues and two seasons of ACTION Theatre’s The Swimming Instructor. She also directed 251 based on the life accounts of Annabel Chong which received international acclaim. She also actively directs for youth, corporate and charity entities.
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