Pass.ages

The Studios: Trip
Esplanade Theatre Studio
April 12, 8pm

Four women standing at their respective watershed ages take turns to tell their stories in this meandering performance which attempts to outline the contours of one’s life as it is disrupted by illness, social convention and – above all – time.

Choreographed dance sequences add another layer of complexity to the lives of these women as the audience confronts the physicality of the body, while elegant and abstract projections on the stage resemble scars, ultrasound scans and waves.

Playwright Jean Tay’s script has its moments of warmth and humour within individual scenes, but the weaving of four narrative threads across the show do not always come together as a tight tapestry as some characters are less developed than others.

The most fully realised character of the quartet is Ogy (Suhaili Safari), a 39-year-old woman who struggles to get pregnant and feels an ambivalence towards talk about her “biological clock”.

She is given a powerful backstory which traces her fraught relationship with her body from puberty to womanhood.

The story of middle-aged Shivani (Nirmala Seshadri), too, raises interesting questions about ageism in the performing arts world.

A skilled bharatanatyam artist coming into artistic maturity, she finds herself sidelined by younger award-winning artists as her body begins to show signs of slowing.

Others, like the elderly Ching (Dana Lam) – who is cared for in a facility because of her dementia – are less fully fleshed out. Much of the drama centres on a mirror which Ching holds onto, itself a metaphor for self-identity – but little beyond her beloved possession.

Then, there is 18-year-old Millie (Shanice Stanislaus), who deals with an illness that changes her outlook on life. Millie’s overt Gen Z tics and lingo are scripted a tad too exaggeratedly and can sometimes feel more parodic than true to life.

Conceptualised and directed by Sim Yan Ying – who is also credited as a script editor – as an interdisciplinary production which blends drama and dance, the play has its own ambition of telling its story in a different, less straightforward manner.

The show is part of Trip, a programme by the Esplanade that serves as a platform for early-career theatre directors to showcase and direct their own productions.

In 2023, Sim had taken risks by directing playwright Joel Tan’s equally vignette-based No Particular Order. Now in her second year, she takes another risk by conceptualising a new work in the borderland between art forms.

But the tonal shifts between narrative and dance scenes can often feel too abrupt to be emotionally resonant.

Ultimately, the choice to look at a panorama of experiences across four very different women sacrificed the script’s ability to explore their characters in depth.

Book It/Pass.ages

Where: Esplanade Theatre Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: April 13, 3 and 8pm; April 14, 3pm
Admission: $32 (standard) and $24 (concession)
Info: https://www.esplanade.com/whats-on/festivals-and-series/series/trip/passages