Just when you thought you knew what NS was all about…
Two decades after Army Daze, it’s time to rediscover National Service – in all its familiarity and strangeness! Two comedies and a musical all about NS – why we hate it, love it, fear it and ultimately, can’t live without it!
Full Tank by Laremy Lee – Sergeant Leroy and his motley tank crew hijack a tank and go AWOL, embarking on a joyride through the night streets of Singapore! Meanwhile, the authorities (ALL of them) are in a panic over yet another inexplicable threat to national security. How oh how will it all end?
Radio Silence by Laremy Lee – An NSF officer and his assigned driver lose their way while on an unspecified mission in a foreign jungle, and find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into a no man’s land where protocol and hierarchy can break down as easily as the radio…
Botak Boys by Julian Wong – BMT is every Singaporean male’s nightmare. Or is it? Experience the heartache, the bravery and the rude shocks as Justin and his blur buddies sing and dance their way through Tekong! Will he find friends? Will his secret be exposed? Will he even survive the first two weeks?
About OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival 08
W!LD RICE’s biennial festival dedicated to the development and staging of new Singapore plays featured 14 new plays by 6 theatre companies over the course of 3 weeks.
From bold, funny and irreverent, to whimsical, thought provoking and beautiful; from the intimate and personal, to the epic and fantastic; these plays represented the ideas of a generation of theatre artists reflecting on the problems and possibilities of our times.
By re-examining our history and legends, tackling urgent issues and musing about what the future might hold, the plays offered imaginative and critical perspectives.
Three themes stood out in this 2008 festival. The first was multiculturalism. In The Swordfish, then the Concubine, a multiracial Singaporean cast performed episodes from the Malay Annals, interpreted by a Chinese Malaysian playwright, revealing how a pre-colonial past was very much a vital part of our nation’s heritage. In angel-ism, we witnessed a collaboration between a Chinese-language and a Malay-language theatre company, arguably the first of its kind in recent years.
Another theme was that of history and memory. The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles was an ambitious, iconoclastic treatment of the life of Singapore’s official founder, whereas I Am Queen provided us with a daring glimpse of turbulent pre-Independence Singapore and Malaya through the eyes of an exotic dancer. Tree Duet and House Of Memory offered a contemplative account of the fragility of memories in a city of forgetting.
A final theme was that of the future. The works of some first-time playwrights. Apocalypse: LIVE! and the plays in Own Time Own Target hopefully triggered a wave of new Singaporean playwrights, tackling themes as diverse as armageddon and the army. The plays presented by Magdalena (Singapore) assured us that women’s voices will always be a crucial and invaluable aspect of our vibrant theatre scene.
