2026 Singapore theatre season
6 shows to catch for 2026 Singapore theatre season, from Lord Of The Flies to The Christians
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Almost all the shows are eligible for SG Culture Pass credits.
PHOTOS: PANGDEMONIUM, GIN TAY, KUA CHEE SIONG, JASEL POH, NICHOLAS YEO
SINGAPORE – March and April usher in the heavyweight season openers of major theatre companies in Singapore, almost all eligible for the SG Culture Pass credits. The Straits Times picks six shows that are worth your time and money.
Inch Chua and Benjamin Kheng star in Pangdemonium’s Chekhov adaptation Force Majeure
The cast of Pangdemonium’s season opener Force Majeure, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
PHOTO: PANGDEMONIUM
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s drama of unhappy families and secret affairs Three Sisters (1901) has been transplanted from its Russian setting to other conflict-ridden milieux – from 1990s Belfast during the Irish Troubles to Nigeria, when Biafra attempted to secede in 1967.
Now, South-east Asia gets its own version, but without the military overtones.
Singapore playwright Stephanie Street’s Force Majeure is Pangdemonium’s opener for its final season. It plays at Victoria Theatre from March 6 to 15 after co-founders Adrian and Tracie Pang dropped the shock announcement of the theatre company’s closure earlier in February.
The Christians director Glen Goei almost chose full-time church ministry over theatre
Singaporean theatremaker and film director Glen Goei is directing American playwright Lucas Hnath’s The Christians.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Singaporean theatremaker Glen Goei recalls a time when he might have devoted his life to full-time church ministry rather than art. As a young man, he spent one ardent summer in Italy spreading the gospel and even toured Malaysian villages as one member of the four-piece evangelical boy band Eagles.
“Looking back now, it’s kind of bizarre. I mean, I had a great time. I was this Singaporean-Chinese boy trying to preach the gospel of Christ to a nation of Catholics in village piazzas by singing in Italian. But maybe because I’m a theatre person, I relished it,” says Goei, who eventually embarked on a celebrated career that saw him play a gender-bending spy in a West End staging of M. Butterfly and take on film festivals around the world.
The 63-year-old co-artistic director of Wild Rice no longer goes to church regularly, but of late, he has been taking a group of actors to Sunday service in preparation for Wild Rice’s staging of The Christians. Playing from April 9 to May 2, Goei will direct the play about megachurches at Wild Rice’s Funan theatre, which he reminisces is a stone’s throw from where he was baptised as a baby at St Andrew’s Cathedral.
Nine Years Theatre on comedy of bad manners God Of Carnage: ‘Civility comes at a huge cost’
Nine Years Theatre’s Mandarin-language adaptation of French playwright Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage plays at Wild Rice @ Funan from March 20 to 29.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
For Singaporeans who would rather hide behind the mannered facade of prim and polite talk, Singaporean director Nelson Chia, 54, says French playwright Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage holds a lesson: “Civility comes at a huge cost.”
Often described as a comedy of bad manners, Reza’s Tony Award-winning play pitches two sets of concerned parents against each other. What begins as a civil discussion about their boys’ playground brawl soon crumbles into vicious language and plain rudeness as the evening wears on.
Nine Years Theatre’s (NYT) Mandarin-language adaptation of the play – originally written in French – will show at Wild Rice @ Funan from March 20 to 29. It is SG Culture Pass eligible.
Director Chong Tze Chien examines power and tyranny in his take on Lord Of The Flies
Lord Of The Flies plays at KC Arts Centre from March 5 to 15.
ST PHOTO: JASEL POH
At an industrial building in Geylang, six boys, barefoot and in mottled singlets, are caught in a recurring call and echo. The spontaneous anthem of the day? California Dreamin’ by vocal group The Mamas & The Papas, in tribute to the dead plant of one of the actors.
As yet another refrain starts up – “All the leaves are brown...” – Singapore International Festival of Arts director Chong Tze Chien laments: “Can you believe this is my life every day?”
The creative director of theatre company Sight Lines is helming this boisterous crew of six actors in a new production of that staple of schoolboy savagery, Lord Of The Flies by British author William Golding, recently given a BBC adaptation.
Two popular restagings to catch
Playwright and composer weish’s take on Singaporean schooling life, Secondary: The Musical, was The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2025’s Production of the Year.
PHOTO: NICHOLAS YEO
The Theatre Practice brings back its Lao Jiu: The Musical while Checkpoint restages its runaway 2024 hit, Secondary: The Musical.
