Deep-dive into four shows at Esplanade’s Studios season on from July 24 to Sept 6
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Claire Teo’s first play, Monstress, takes inspiration from Medea and Medusa and is about family abuse in Singapore. It is part of the Esplanade's The Studios programme.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
SINGAPORE – The Esplanade’s annual Studios season – which showcases cutting-edge, small-scale theatre works – opens on July 24 with Fragments Of Tuah, directed by Malaysian theatremaker Mark Teh under the auspices of Five Arts Centre.
The long-running showcase of contemporary theatre and performance works organised by the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay also features award-winning works from Australia, Belgium and Iran.
The Straits Times takes a deeper dive into four key shows which kick off a new three-year story arc exploring aspects of power. This year’s theme is Precarious Bodies.
Award-winning Fragments Of Tuah finds contemporary relevance in 15th-century Malaysian warrior Hang Tuah
Fragments Of Tuah is a deep dive into the many versions of 15th-century warrior Hang Tuah.
PHOTO: PAM LIM
Doomscrolling during Covid-19, Malaysian theatremaker Mark Teh encountered a puzzling phenomenon: Content creators, many of them young, were racing each other to visit the birth and death locations of Hang Tuah, a 15th-century warrior who is a household name in Malaysia.
While a resurgent interest in history among the young would usually earn applause, Teh was disturbed. Previous generations had been comfortable with Hang Tuah as a figure that existed between fact and fiction, yet he was now asserted as a bona fide historical figure.
Along with co-conspirators from his collective Five Arts Centre, Teh, over four years, scampered into the rabbit hole, beginning a six-session study group to read the 500-page literary epic Hikayat Hang Tuah. The resulting performance, Fragments Of Tuah, will play as part of the Esplanade’s The Studios Season.
Claire Teo’s Monstress finds troubled Medeas and Medusas in a S’pore HDB estate
Claire Teo has written her first play, Monstress, which will be part of the Esplanade’s The Studios programme.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
The vengeful Greek tales of Medea and Medusa have in recent years been rehabilitated globally as feminist sagas of justified rage. Now, Singapore performer Claire Teo, who is blind, has created a localised version full of shock and drama, set in an HDB estate.
Far from jumping on a bandwagon, Monstress – an Esplanade co-production with Teo and Art:Dis – is a long-simmering cry of rage by the 27-year-old artist.
Handle With Care presents theatre packed into a shoebox with no cast and crew
Belgian experimental theatre group Ontroerend Goed is presenting Handle With Care at Esplanade’s The Studios season in 2026.
PHOTO: JOELLE DESMET
It is a suspicious package. It is your Taobao parcel. No, it is Belgian experimental theatre company Ontroerend Goed’s latest show.
While audiences worldwide are gorging on flashy immersive gimmicks, Handle With Care is deliberately low-maintenance fare. Zero cast and crew will fly into Singapore when the work plays nine shows from Aug 7 to Sept 6 at the Esplanade as part of the arts centre’s latest Studios season. The single-use “set” fits into a paper crate not much larger than a shoebox, which costs approximately €600 (S$885) to make.
Iranian work Blind Runner is defiant artmaking across borders
Iranian theatremaker Amir Reza Koohestani’s Mehr Theatre Group is presenting Blind Runner at Esplanade’s The Studios 2026 season.
PHOTO: BENJAMIN KRIEG
The United States’ ongoing “unjust war” on Iran looms dreadfully over Iranian director and playwright Amir Reza Koohestani’s Blind Runner, which plays in Singapore from July 31 to Aug 2. But he cautions the play does not need the noise of war to stay relevant: “In fact, war can obscure its clarity.”
The show has roots in the aftermath of the crackdown on Iran’s Green Movement in 2009, when Koohestani started running to escape the memories of tear gas. That small freedom was soon aborted when an orthopedist ordered him to stop running indefinitely after a bad cramp.
