Action Theatre- Production

FEATURED PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

The two plays selected for the third installment of Theatre Idols on Sat 26 March 2005 are Sleepwalkers by Paul Tan and Coffin Capers by Ng Swee San.

Sleepwalkers by Paul Tan

Coffin Capers by Ng Swee San

Sleepwalkers by Paul Tan
(Directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall; starring Caroline Cheong, Jonathan Lum, Cynthia Lee & Dick Su)

• The Synopsis
• About the Playwright
• Conversation with the Playwright
• The Director & The Cast

Sleepwalkers: Synopsis
When Janice started sleepwalking, escaping into a world more exciting than her auto-pilot marriage, it was the doorway to more danger than her clockwork marriage could handle.

About the Playwright

Paul Tan has published two award-winning volumes of verse Curious Roads (1994) and Driving Into Rain (1998), which won the Commendation and Merit Prizes at the Singapore Literature Prize competition.

Apart from mentoring students in the Creative Arts Programme since 1998, Paul also mentored young adults in creative writing under NAC's pioneer Mentor Access Project.

His poetry and other writings have appeared in The Straits Times, The New Straits Times, Project Eyeball, Silver Kris, Commentary, The Arts Magazine, QLRS.com as well as poetry anthologies, No Other City and From Boys To Men, among others.

He works in the Singapore Press Holdings.

Sleepwalkers is the first full-length play he has written.

Conversation with the Playwright

Catch Paul on video now!

1. What inspired you to write Sleepwalkers?

What triggered this play was a short news wire story in the Straits Times about a woman who had sex with strangers while she was sleepwalking. Sounded far-fetched but the story was based on a case study in a psychiatry journal. I thought it would make an fascinating story to set in Singapore.

2. What are the issues you are trying to explore in Sleepwalkers?

Sleepwalking was a useful motif to explore two things: one, how people sleepwalk through marriage and indeed through life; and secondly, how sleepwalking and the dream world can be an easy yet dangerous escape from a humdrum waking reality.

3. What about sleepwalking is most interesting to you?

The fact that your body is doing things which you are not aware of... As a writer, I wonder what kind of subconscious world that must be and what the waking world of the sleepwalker would be like...

4. Sleepwalking in public or drooling in your sleep in an MRT train – which would be more embarrassing to you? Why?

Sleepwalking of course. Because it is far less common and you could do more wacky things sleepwalking.

5. Any advice to sleepwalkers?

Er, see a doctor? Or ask someone to tie you up? Who knows, you may even enjoy it...

The Director & the Cast of Sleepwalkers

Samantha Scott-Blackhall

Directed by Life! Theatre Award nominee for Best Director Samantha Scott-Blackhall, the staged reading of Sleepwalkers features Caroline Cheong, Jonathan Lum, Cynthia Lee & Dick Su.

About the Director

Samantha returned home to Singapore in 2002 after obtaining a First Class Honours Degree from Flinders University of South Australia, majoring in Drama and Directing. Her directing credits since returning include The House of Sleeping Beauties, The Lover & The Dumb Waiter, Agnes of God (Life! Theatre Awards 2003 Best Director Nomination), Popcorn and Lonely Planet with Luna-id, Dead Certain, Modern Dance For Beginners (Life! Theatre Awards 2003 Best Director Nomination) and Deep Blue Sea with Escape Theatre, The Quest For The Paper Gifts (Story Theatre) and Moiliere Madness (Lasalle-SIA College of Arts). Prior to her return, Samantha spent four years in Australia where she directed and designed a number of productions including Top Girls, the Adelaide Premiere of Wit, Three Tall Women and The Return for the Adelaide Festival Fringe 2002

Coffin Capers by Ng Swee San
(Directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall; starring Amy Cheng, Henry Heng, Dairus Tan, Paerin Choa & Godfrey Yeo)

• The Synopsis
• About the Playwright
• Conversation with the Playwright
• The Director & The Cast

Coffin Capers: Synopsis

Tensions erupt when Mike, a materialistic lawyer, his Buddhist brother and Christian sister disagree on their father’s funeral arrangements. And their differences are not just over religion. In arguing over the past and their present differences, they inadvertently unearth more than they want to. A tragi-farce about life, death and relationships.

About the Playwright

Ng Swee San is a freelance writer and editor. When not working on corporate brochures, she talks to invisible people and voices in her head.

Her first full-length play Marriage of Inconvenience was produced by TheatreWorks in February 2004. A few months later, she was awarded a film script grant to work on a film adaptation of Marriage. She was crazy enough to try her hand at a musical – taking up the challenge of writing the book and lyrics for Making The Grade, a fund-raising project produced by her alma mater Methodist Girls’ School. Swee San has also written tv scripts for children’s drama programs, docu-dramas and infotainment shows.

Coffin Capers is an adaptation of her first film screenplay Funeral Ties which was awarded second prize at the MDA National Scriptwriting Competition 2003 (Feature Film category).

Her next crazy project is a flamboyant family musical based on the Chinese zodiac.

Conversation with the Playwright

Catch Swee San on video now!

1. What inspired you to write Coffin Capers?

It was during my father's funeral 3 years ago that the seed for the story was first planted although I didn't actually sit down and write a script until nearly two years later.

At the time of my father's funeral, there were 2 Buddhists, 2 Christians and 2 free thinkers among us 6 siblings. And while we didn't have any of the massive disagreements that the characters in the play had, I'm sure there were some resentments about some of the funeral arrangements. Except that we kept quiet so as not to create a scene. Later on, I wondered what conflicts would have arisen if we had expressed our true feelings.

2. What are the issues you are trying to explore in Coffin Capers?

On the surface, the siblings disagree about religion, but the play is really about family ties.

3. What are interesting or unusual things you associate with a coffin - besides the usual associations with death?

I've read of stories where prisoners of war pretended to be dead so that they could be smuggled out in coffins. So I guess a coffin could represent escape and freedom. A coffin is probably the only product that a customer doesn't want to buy for himself and which he pays a small fortune to use for a few days. In some ways, funerals have become as commercialised as Valentine's Day.

4. How do you personally react to funerals?

Well, I haven't been to that many funerals. I feel quite uncomfortable, never know quite what to say or how to comfort the bereaved family. Funerals are often more about the family of the deceased than about the deceased. But at the same time, if a
person did not touch the lives of others when he was living, no one would attend his/her funeral. Which would be more tragic than dying. So perhaps in some ways, the worth of a person is measured by how many people show up at his funeral!

5. Is thinking about one’s own future funeral something that is morbid to you? Why so/not?

My very first assignment in a journalism class I took, was to write my own obituary. So, no, I don't find thinking of one's own future funeral morbid. Not unless you obssess about it.

The Director & the Cast of Coffin Capers

Directed by Life! Theatre Award nominee for Best Director Samantha Scott-Blackhall, the staged reading of Coffin Capers features Amy Cheng, Henry Heng, Dairus Tan, Paerin Choa & Godfrey Yeo.

About the Director

To read about other plays featured in Theatre Idols, click here.