Recantation

NOH: I, [name, ic] hereby apologise for my belief and my action. Please punish me for treasuring my past, for not being supportive of change, for not thinking of progress for being unproductive.

ANGELA: I, [name, ic] hereby apologise for my belief and my action. Please punish me for being strong, single and independent; for not craving for a relationship; for wanting to achieve financial security for the future.

DOREEN: I, [name, ic] hereby apologise for my belief and my action. Please punish me for being a single mother, for not being able to sustain a nuclear family, for eating with my maid and selling my child.

[...]

DRAGS: We, [names, ics] hereby apologise for our belief and our action. Please punish us for placing so much importance on sex organs. For going against nature and not being able to reproduce; for decreasing the number of men in Singapore; for not being a tourist attraction and contributing to the economy and prosperity of Singapore.

The Trial

I am not guilty

Tell them to stop!!

IT IS BEYOND MY CONTROL!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!! EVERYTHING IS BEYOND MY CONTROL. EVERYTHING…

People look up to you. They worship you. They will do anything for you. And you say you have no control.

Kah Wei: Not Guilty

Mak: This country no good. People no good. When I sell food, I wear badge. Smile. Smile. I go Woodbridge. Got poster. Smile. I smile.

Don't believe less in mankind... even if people fail you. Don't believe less in God... even if your suffering seems endless. Don't believe less in yourself... even if you find no reason to live.

If someone tells you, go away, say no. If someone tells you, you don't belong here, say no. This is my home. No. This is my life. Today. Tomorrow. For generations to come.

Epilogue

Caregiver: Your memory, Hiro-San, is full.

Hiro: Option to erase memory?

Caregiver: Please select memory to erase, Hiro-San.

Hiro: I don't know which.

Caregiver: Your memory, Hiro-San, is full. Love and move on.

A Mockumentary, A Mockessay? - Princess Diana is Dead

"Revitalization and rejuvenation of history through the pedagogical framework of the other."

T. Sasitharan: You know there’s no understanding that this is important and this money has to be spent, otherwise the whole project loses its historical significance. Nothing has historical life unless it’s put down on paper somewhere, recorded on a video somewhere, and we can retrieve it at sometime in the future and look at it and talk about it. So things cannot exist without histories and in Singapore we do art as if history doesn’t exist.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Necessary Stage apologises for this break in the performance. We would like to inform you that a scene that would have been performed at this point and 2 other scenes later in this play will not be staged. This is due to a fax received from the licensing division of Singapore Police Force on 30 November 1999. The fax reads as follows:

Zack: Look, we have been friends for over 10 years, and it’s still difficult for you to change my mind. How are you going to change people? Strangers, worthless strangers!

Marcus: If the only way I can get to your heart and your mind is to put a knife through it… are you saying that’s the only way? (pause) Zack, we have each other, don’t we?

Zack: Yes.