Malaysia – Singapore in Are You Game, Sau(dara)?

Centre 42 (Singapore) and Five Arts Centre (Malaysia) are co-presenting a new double- bill titled Are You Game, Sau(dara)? this March. This exciting cross-Causeway theatre production marks the first time that the two companies are presenting a work together. It will be performed at Kotak @ Five Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur, from 1 to 3 March 2019, and then at Centre 42 Black Box, Singapore, from 8 to 10 March 2019.

Are You Game, Sau(dara)? is created as a contemporary response to Three Children, a boundary-pushing 1988 play about childhood by Malaysian playwright Leow Puay Tin. Are You Game, Sau(dara)? comprises two works.

The first piece, Are You Game?, is created by Malaysian director Fasyali Fadzly. Are You Game? is a response piece to Leow Puay Tin’s Three Children (1988). This devised piece revolves around the idea of memories and identity seen through a contemporary Malaysian lens. This work in progress is semi-interactive, and seeks to playfully engage with audiences.

The second piece, titled Sau(dara), is devised by Singapore-based theatre company Bhumi Collective, and explores childhood, memory, and play. Its premise is based on the artistic team’s own childhood experiences, while also incorporating scenes from the original script of Three Children. A work-in-progress version of this work was first presented in 2018 under Centre 42’s The Vault programme, a platform that invites artists to create responses to past works in the theatre canon. More information about this showcase can be found here. Are You Game, Sau(dara)? will be performed in English and Malay, with English surtitles provided at the Singapore staging.

“We’re excited to embark on a new collaboration with Five Arts Centre. Through this co- presentation, we hope to explore new connections and approaches between independent artists, as well as between independent art centres. This deepening of relationship with Five Arts Centre, Bhumi Collective and Fasyali Fadzly is especially meaningful as Centre 42 has worked with each party on different occasions over the last two years,” says Ma Yanling, Company Manager of Centre 42.

June Tan, producer with Five Art Centre, echoes this with: “It’s exciting for us to see how a new way of archiving/recording is considered with responses by contemporary practitioners on text/performance strategies previously employed by the past production(s) of Leow Puay Tin’s Three Children. Puay Tin and her work have had close relationships with Five Arts‟ members such as Krishen Jit to Chin San Sooi, Chee Sek Thim and others. We are curious and encouraged to see how we can expand this thread to include Fasyali, Amin, Centre 42 and the host of contemporary practitioners working on this double-bill, both on the Malaysian and Singaporean side.”