Teach children power of friendship, parental love with new Mandarin theatre shows

SINGAPORE – When playwright Cherilyn Woo first started writing a children’s book about the friendship between a dolphin and a whale, she was inspired by her best friend from secondary school, who was to illustrate the book.

Although the collaboration never came to fruition, Woo has dusted off the manuscript from a decade ago and continued developing the story as Phinny & Wally. It is Mandarin theatre company Nine Years Theatre’s first venture into children’s theatre after having established its adult audience since 2012.

Woo’s friend will be in the audience, and the story continues to be a testament to the power of friendship.

“It’s such a gift to have a friend and to be a friend,” says Woo, an associate with Nine Years Theatre, of her close companion who was by her side when they graduated from college into the creative industry. “It was nice to have a friend to move through these uncharted waters with.”

Facing the threat of environmental pollution and large ships encircling their home, Phinny the dolphin and Wally the whale find allies in each other. Woo says the show, with a pre-show segment that teaches children about pollution, will ask another question: “How can we be a friend to the environment?”

The show has already received a stamp of approval from Woo’s six-year-old nephew, who sent her voice notes asking for a sequel. “Since having nephews, I kind of see that they are entering a very different world than the one I grew up in,” remarks Woo, who was also inspired to see the story through the eyes of the kids.

Phinny & Wally, which is targeted at children aged five to seven, will be staged at Drama Centre Black Box from July 27 to Aug 4.

Children’s puppetry company Paper Monkey Theatre will also be staging a Chinese-language theatre show adapted from parts of Wu Cheng’en’s classic novel Journey To The West. Journey West – Mount Fiery will play at Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) from Aug 30 to Sept 1.

Scriptwriter and director Benjamin Ho says: “Who doesn’t love Journey To The West? When I was young, I was so fascinated (by it). And now, reading it every day, I always find new things about it – information I missed out when I was a child.”

The novel is an account of a pilgrimage undertaken by the monk Tang Sanzang in search of Buddhist scriptures in the Western regions. This time, Ho is telling the story of the Monkey King – Sun Wukong – borrowing a Banana Leaf Fan from the Iron Fan Princess to pass a hostile volcanic mountain range.

But due to the princess and her son’s enmity with the Monkey King, she creates new obstacles for him. For Ho, this episode speaks to the modern parenting phenomenon of overindulging and spoiling one’s child.

Mount Fiery is the third in a series of shows about the Chinese classic staged at SCCC. The previous shows are White Bone Fiend and The Crimson Boy. “For every episode, we try to find how this old tale can speak to us in this very modern way. Be it the parents, grandparents or children, they find some part of it they can relate to and enjoy.”

The story will feature a tradition of glove puppetry that was popularised by Taiwanese television series Pili (1985 to present). As some of its design is inspired by Japanese anime, Ho says he hopes to introduce to children this different form of puppetry that is cute and not found in Singapore.

Both Nine Years Theatre and Paper Monkey Theatre say the children’s theatre scene is growing, but one concern is the lack of writers.

Ho, who is the artistic director of Paper Monkey Theatre, adds that he has not seen many good children’s playwrights in Singapore. “In terms of children’s writing in Singapore, it’s still very niche and small, with all focusing on adult’s theatre.”

Compared with the children’s theatre scene in Japan and China, he says, parents here do not have the habit of taking their children to the theatre and still expect such shows to be free.

He adds that while parents are willing to shell out for an expensive family meal that costs more than $100, “they’ll say that four tickets for a family is very expensive”.

“Our sense of value is very different,” Ho says.

Nine Years Theatre artistic director Nelson Chia says of the Mandarin theatre scene: “I am generally optimistic, but I am also very concerned about the future of Singapore’s Mandarin theatre only because fewer and fewer people are creating and working in the language.”

He hopes that Nine Years Theatre’s investment in children’s theatre can be for the long-term development of creatives as well. Chia translated Woo’s Phinny & Wally from English into Chinese and says translation of scripts can be a strength of a multilingual theatre scene.

He adds that the company is looking to stage one children’s theatre show a year, and its future plans include staging shows for different age ranges, as well as drama training for younger actors.

Through this new focus on children’s theatre, Chia hopes that it will help create new audiences for Mandarin theatre. “We want to nurture young audiences who have the confidence to say, ‘I can watch a Mandarin play.’”

Book It / Phinny & Wally

Where: Drama Centre Black Box, National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street
When: July 27 to Aug 4, various timings
Admission: $35 a ticket, $63 for two tickets, $120 for four tickets
Info: Go to

str.sg/me3Q

, with no surtitles

Book It / Journey West – Mount Fiery

Where: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre Auditorium, 1 Straits Boulevard
When: Aug 30 to Sept 1, various timings
Admission: $24, $26 and $30
Info: Go to

str.sg/8gq2

, with English surtitles