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What are the secrets that a family keep from others—and do family members keep one another in the dark sometimes? 

The Necessary Stage presents Family Secrets, a doublebill of well-loved plays about two families encountering change through illnesses inflicting their senior members, and how they rise above the challenges to grow stronger than ever. 

Both plays are presented in Mandarin, dialects and English, with English surtitles.

The Necessary Stage celebrates its 30th anniversary with the return of Those Who Can’t, Teach!

First staged in 1990 and subsequently in 2010 to full houses at the Singapore Arts Festival, Those Who Can’t, Teach is a Singaporean theatre classic by Cultural Medallion winners Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma.

Set in a secondary school, the play looks at the madcap lives of teachers and students—with often hilarious results. As the teachers struggle daily to 'nurture and groom', the students prefer to hang out and chill. In the meantime, they all have to deal with the dreaded 'parents'.

With upskirting and texting, teaching and politicking, school has never been the same. Join the rambunctious cast of characters as they struggle to prove that Those Who CAN, Teach.

In real life, there are no rehearsals and no second takes.
 
Actor, Forty features Golden Horse Award-winner Yeo Yann Yann returning to the Chinese theatre stage in a special Huayi commission.
 
This new original monologue sees Yeo collaborating with Cultural Medallion recipients, director Alvin Tan and playwright Haresh Sharma of The Necessary Stage. Candid and conversational, it examines the myriad identities that we take on and cast off in life—just as an actor does when she adopts different roles.
 
Blurring the lines between actor and character, Yeo plays an actress who has just been cast in a contemporary remake of Summer Snow《女人四十》, a 1995 Hong Kong film about a 40-something woman dealing with difficult family issues. The actress has a secret that she is struggling to keep under wraps—she is turning 40 and expecting her first child. Faced with the challenge of juggling a globetrotting job and raising a child, she confronts her hopes and fears. Will she still be able to find meaning in her career, and also play to perfection what could be her most challenging role yet—becoming a mother?

现实，无从彩排，也无法重来。
 
《演员四十》，金马奖最佳女配角杨雁雁回归中文戏剧舞台的全新独角戏。
 
华艺节委约新作，由杨雁雁携手新加坡剧场最佳拍档，文化奖得主及必要剧场导演陈崇敬与编剧哈里斯•沙玛全心打造。她担纲演出单人剧，娓娓道出她扮演的女演员面对事业与家庭两难的生命故事。
 
在剧中女演员的现实生活里，她在各个不同的生命角色间游走，她全力以赴，就像在每出戏里倾情演绎着不同的人物一般。
 
女演员在迈向40人生路之际，接获得奖电影《女人四十》即将重拍的主角重任，此时，她发现自己怀孕了！本是两件喜讯好事，竟让她陷入是否该透露怀孕实情的挣扎。希望与忧心揪着疼：到底她该专注哪个角色？

In 2013, award-winning actress Siti Khalijah Zainal brought The Necessary Stage's Best Of to life, playing the role of a young Malay Muslim woman going through divorce.

Now, accomplished TV and stage actor Sani Hussin takes the stage as the husband to share his side of the story in Best Of (His Story), written by Haresh Sharma and directed by Alvin Tan.

What happens when the estranged couple reunite at the Syariah court? What does he say to a wife seeking divorce? What can he say?

How would this change his view of what “home” means?

Just as his wife had shared her day with the audience, he offers us a glimpse into a day in his life, his past, his dreams... and his beliefs.

He too is not a stereotype. But after today, he may well be a statistic.

Did you know that you can get fined $200 if you are a mosquito breeder?

Spend an afternoon with the seniors from The Necessary Stage’s Theatre For Seniors! When accused of breeding mosquitoes, what will two neighbours do? Will they cooperate or push the blame to each other?

Who love mosquitoes though? Nobody. So let’s do the Mozzie Wipeout together! 

Rosnah is a young Malay Muslim woman who leaves home for the first time to study in London. As she navigates her new environment with determination, she forges new connections with friends who differ from her in all respects—personality, race and religion.
Would she be able to balance tradition and liberal ideals without losing her identity?

One of The Necessary Stage’s well-loved early plays by Resident Playwright and Cultural Medallion recipient Haresh Sharma, Rosnah is a monodrama of a Singapore Malay Muslim woman in London as she journeys through youth and womanhood to discover her own voice. .
First staged in 1995 at Tampines Regional Library, then at The Substation’s Guinness Theatre in 1996, Rosnah starred Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit and was performed in Melbourne in 1997 to critical and popular acclaim. The play was revived in 2006 as part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, directed by Mosbit herself while Young Artist Award recipient Siti Khalijah Zainal took on the titular role.


Performed entirely in Malay for the first time, Siti reprises her role in this 2016 staging, directed by Cultural Medallion recipient Alvin Tan (Founder and Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage).