Themes

When the Bough Breaks
Haresh Sharma

As playwright, my first impulse was to be able to identify with the issues. Not being married or a woman or having had a child, I had to internalise the depths of the issues, the complexities and the emotions by speaking to women who had experienced, or were experiencing, perinatal depression.

Art and Healing

Art builds communities; repairs victims emerging from tragedies; consoles human beings undergoing personal trauma or social crisis. When a human being is unable to reach out to another, Art is easily the mediator, the medium, the midwife with the antidote; the remedy to the malady.

Act V, Scene 1 (Vinod, Ah Seng and Mr Chow)

VINOD: And you didn't pay us for two months. That's not fair right? And you know Mr. Chow, people were saying that you only hire ex-patients because you want to get some Community Service Award.

CHOW: Vinod, they should count their lucky stars that someone like me is even taking them in, giving them an opportunity. Who else would do that? Who else would hire a person who is fine today and has a breakdown tomorrow? Huh? You tell me.

AH SENG: Want to resign also cannot resign. Five times already I resign. Nobody want already. Smelly already.

CHOW: My company has a reputation to maintain. We have won awards at WITS, we have BEST and WISE classes. Our rate of productivity is totally in alignment with the government's. These people are a risk factor. But I take them in because of the kindness of my heart.

AH SENG: Here good. Nobody disturb. Last time I work got people disturb. People know we all mental case. I think maybe I must carry pager or handphone. Then people won't think I mental case.

Walking Into Doors (1998)

Nirmala: So the play reaches out perhaps also to victims but also more importantly, to those who do not want to be involved because they do not want to be victims of the perpetrators. It has to say, what are you doing about it? Why is it that some issues capture your attention, and some others we turn away and run from it? So it tries to force you to participate.

Message
Elvira Holmberg

The cumulative experience of that period was filled with insight, personally confronting and to say the least, disturbing. How does one write a play that could encapsulate the pain the anger, the need and lack of support, the triumph, the sheer tenacity of the human spirit of those daily haunted by the reality of HIV/AIDS in their lives? Where and how does one start to tell teh tale? Which tale does one tell out of the hundreds of thousands that already exist as fact?

Self-Evaluation Exercise

Like Ann, have you been dissatisfied at your appearance, weight or other aspects of yourself? Why are you dissatisfied?

Message

In the end, the play is about the disease systemic lupus erythematous, but it is also about the ordinary and extraordinary lives of the people who struggle, work, play and simply live with it from day to day.

Subtext: Teenage Suicide
Theresa Tan

By bringing together young persons who have gone through these experiences and survived, by letting them share that with a seemingly "normal" audience, it is both an education for the players and the ones played to.

Thoughts on Playwriting
Haresh Sharma

It’s hard not to feel the pain and struggles of these people—these people whom I would not normally meet in my daily life as a full-time playwright, if not for these commissions. It’s hard not to tear, to cry along… to reach out and comfort. Whatever emotions I bottle up at these sessions, I channel into the plays I write.

Off Centre: Experiencing the Other Side
Verena Tay

The most profitable hours were those at the Oasis Club, a meeting place for ex-mental patients. In the more informal environment of the Club, the TNS team could mingle with members more freely and for longer periods that its visits to the other institutions.

Do You Care Enough?
Emmy Alim

Whatever you want to call it, "Completely With/Out Character" is Paddy's way of showing us that no matter how much stigmatisation, marginalisation and discrimination he has faced since diagnosed with HIV, here is a man courageous enough to stand alone on stage, before the very society that has slammed him with unfair labels, and dismissed him through the taboos and fallacies surrounding HIV. He is not out to preach. He just wants to share. Don't judge him. Just watch him.

Sunday Afternoon With Vinod and Saloma

This is an exercise which the main cast did during one of the rehearsals. Latiff and Sakinah went, in role as Vinod and Saloma, to Orchard Road. They looked for jobs, bought gifts and were shopping together. This is an account of what happened.

Act 2, Scene 2

Son: It's so funny. In school, we have civics class, moral ed... sometimes there's a community programme where we go to a Home and clean the floor or paint the walls. But deep down... we've lost our natural instinct to care. To really care for one another. No, it's not funny. It's sad.

Anthony Yeo's Message

Since it is difficult to deal openly with suicide, The Necessary Stage must be applauded for bringing it on stage. It is done with a difference. The players are those who have seriously contemplated or have attempted suicide at one time or another.

Their true life stories, told by themselves offer us an invaluable insight into the struggles of those who consider suicide as a way to resolve life's painful dilemmas. They also provide an inside perspective of parent-child relationship.

Reading List (Marijuana Use in Medicine)

The New York Times: Dying Woman Loses Appeal on Marijuana as Medication
The New York Times: Prescription For Pain

Don't Forget to Remember Me
Haresh Sharma

After each performance, there would be a question and answer segment with a panel comprising professionals in the field. It was heartwarming to see so many people taking the microphone to share their own stories about caring for someone with dementia. Several people broke down as they recalled their struggles.

Act 3, Scene 3

Radha… Radha…
Your pain will end soon…
Don’t be afraid…
Don’t stop fighting…
Smile…