_T0701_ | SIFA 2021

14–30 MAY

_T0701_ Zeugma (Singapore)

28 May, Fri, 8pm 29 May, Sat, 2pm & 8pm SOTA Studio Theatre

5 – 12 Jun SIFA On Demand

MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR The world has changed dramatically in the last year. This is an extraordinary time for artists, where we have been asking ourselves: how can we still bring you great art and recreate the magic of the live experience? This is an enormous challenge, one which requires creativity, boldness and determination.

With over 60 productions and over 300 performances, SIFA 2021 has been curated as a direct response to the here and now.

It is a response to the care and compassion we need for ourselves, our community and our environment. It features exceptional artistes and companies who have learnt to adapt and present work that can reach audiences around the world, using a variety of technologies.

And it will feature a record number of Singaporean commissions and collaborations.

Besides shows that will take place in theatres and unique spaces around Singapore, SIFA 2021 will allow you to interact with artists “live” from around the world. There won’t be any shows that you watch passively on a screen. You can also expect the return of festival favourites such as our popular film offering, Singular Screens, as well as Festival House – the epicentre of the festival.

It’s been an honour to helm our national festival and see it grow in stature, both at home and internationally, over the past four years.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the incredible team at Arts House Ltd who have worked tirelessly to make this happen, and especially their Herculean efforts of mounting a festival of this scale during a pandemic.

In a time where most of us can’t travel, SIFA looks forward to bringing the world to you, and Singaporean artists to the world.

See you at SIFA 2021.

Gaurav Kripalani Festival Director

CREATORS’ MESSAGE The idea for _T0701_ was conceived during a video call between myself, Rizman Putra, Brandon Tay and Zulfadli ‘Big’ Rashid sometime towards the end of 2020. With the uncertain future looming, combined with our mutual obsession for alternate realities, there was a burning desire to imagine a postpandemic world filled with our own personal projections.

As that thought settled, we wanted this world to be inhabited by characters who have to precariously navigate the real and the virtual simultaneously to make ends meet. An amplified version of the digital working class, where other than executing the work itself, they have to carefully manage the ratings of their online avatars to fully reap all possible rewards and incentives. This was when the idea of a PMD-riding DePer (Delivery Personnel) emerged and the floodgates were opened.

With the world and character framework set, _T0701_ suddenly became a vessel for us to explore many things beyond the duality of the real and virtual.

The possibilities were limitless but one question we definitely wanted to address; in an algorithm-driven reality fueled by logic and data, where do the supernatural and superstition stand and how can they come into play?

The Zeugma team would like to express our utmost gratitude to the SIFA team for allowing our imaginations to run wild with _T0701_.

Safuan Johari

ABOUT

THE PRODUCTION Blurring the lines between the real and the virtual, this stylish, futuristic trip into the everyday struggles of a PMD delivery rider is a multi-sensory treat.

In an ordinary neighborhood sometime in the future, a PMD Delivery Personnel (DePer) finds himself caught between the struggles of the real and digital world. In the digital realm, mainly ruled by MegahCorp, Jati is another avatar of the digital working class, ruled mainly by MegahCorp. Driven by materialistic rewards of financial incentives and social ratings, it offers him a living and hope for the future.

Meanwhile, in the real world, he has to navigate a journey of life lessons while mounting on his PMD. Genuine human connections made often paint a different story of this new way of life he has just started believing in.

As our protagonist reaches a moment of reckoning, Jati soon realizes he could not tell who is the enemy as the line that connects the real and virtual is not as clearly defined anymore.

Conceived by Zeugma, a collective made up of Rizman Putra, Safuan Johari, Brandon Tay, and Zulfadli Rashid (Big), _T0701_ exudes wit and originality the collective is known for.

With its existential themes around survival, ethics, and modern life, along with a mix of virtual reality and storytelling panache, _T0701_ is a dark and entertaining ride not to be missed.

CREDITS Director Rizman Putra Playwright Zulfadli Rashid (Big) Media Design Brandon Tay Music & Sound Design Safuan Johari

Lighting Design Andy Lim Production Management Natasha May Elias Oh Costume, Hair & Make-up Alexandre Thio Surtitles Farhanah Diyanah

JATI TUNGGAL

RABIAH ABDULLAH TAN @ CIK RABZ

Raised single-handedly by an infamous

Rabiah struggles to make sense of her

bomoh, Jati always wanted to prove himself

existence in a world that has rapidly

worthy of being successful in his own right.

changed in front of her eyes. She grows

His mother often reminds him to be filial

increasingly alienated from society. Being

and to abide by what she calls ‘the rules’. At

the neighbourhood watchdog for the elderly,

times, he feels his spite for her outweighs his

Rabiah spins conspiracy theories of how

filial piety.

technology is bent on taking over human beings free will. However, her conspiracy

Recently graduated, Jati has tried his best to

theories have taken a life of their own, one

look for jobs that will put food on the table

by one proving to be true. At first, Rabiah

but to no avail. In this world, his qualifications

figures that she has been given the gift of

mean nothing. Almost every job is automated

prophecy only to learn that it takes a person

or outsourced. He has no choice but to be a

out of the grid to understand what the grid is

DePer, working under the giant MegahCorp.

doing to native users of technology.

AZIZAH TEKNO

VERSACE LAWRENCE

Raised in an orphanage, Azizah grew up

Often compared to his younger book-smart

without the warmth of a family. She keeps

brother, Versace Lawrence has always

herself distant from society as she feels she

wanted to make it big in his own right. When

sticks out like a sore thumb. The nickname

his brother severed all ties with the family

Azizah Tekno was given to her by the

to serve as MegahCorp’s supreme council,

minders at the orphanage. They identified

it broke their mother’s heart. Guided by

her as the girl who is adept at coding and

his street-smart sensibilities, Versace then

makes good techno music. Always the

vowed to constantly challenge and evade

outsider, Azizah is constantly in search of an

MegahCorp’s control in his own unique ways.

alternative lifestyle.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Rizman Putra Director

Rizman Putra graduated with Master of Arts (Fine Arts) from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2007, and has been actively straddling between performance, visual arts and music for the last decade.

In 2005, Rizman was one of the four artists selected for the President’s Young Talents Exhibition, and was part of the Fukuoka Triennale. In the same year, the now dissolved arts collective he co-founded, Kill Your Television (KYTV), was awarded the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI) Singapore Foundation Arts Award.

Rizman has performed locally and internationally, and at the inaugural Singapore Biennale 2006. Rizman is one half of the retro futurist electronic duo, NADA, and is currently an Associate Artist with Cake Theatrical Productions.

Safuan Johari Music & Sound Design

Safuan Johari is a Singaporean sound designer, music producer and performer. He is also known as Max Lane, a pseudonym he christened himself for his solo production and performance adventures in the electronic realm.

As a sound designer, Safuan has worked on various multimedia art installations and performance productions. He is also part of visual arts/sound duo, NADA, an outfit that explores the history of Malay popular culture.

Zulfadli Rashid (Big) Playwright

Zulfadli Rashid is a multi-hyphenated playwright; proficient in both English and Malay language. He is an Associate Artist with Teater Ekamatra and is also a founding member of the playwriting collective, Main Tulis Group.

His notable plays include the award-nominated musical Alkesah, A Clockwork Orange (a Malay-language stage adaptation of the Anthony Burgess’ work), Harap (an adaptation from Haresh Sharma’s Hope), The Chronicles of One and Zero: Kancil and, Balik.

Zulfadli looks forward to collaborate with artistes across disciplines, languages, cultures, and nationalities; creating art that will entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Brandon Tay Media Design

Brandon Tay is a Singapore based artist working in the fields of mediated sculpture and the moving image. His work complicates distinctions between the tangible and incorporeal, both in composition and well as subject matter.

As a collaborator and individually his work has been shown at Kyoto Dance Experiment, Singapore International Festival of the Arts, M1 Fringe Festival among others.

Irsyad Dawood

Irsyad Dawood is a freelance theatre-maker. His recent acting credits include Murder at Mandai Camp (2020) by Chong Tze Chien and Pandan (2021) by Hazwan Norly. After graduating from School of the Arts, Singapore, he made his debut as a director and playwright at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2018, where he presented his verbatim play Does This Work For You?, discussing workplace discrimination in Singapore.

Apart from theatre-making and performance, Irsyad makes up ¼ of the design collective NAYA, which has been working in collaboration with The Artground for the past year.

In the coming years, Irsyad hopes to spark crucial and urgent conversations through his art and support others who do the same.

Gloria Tan

Gloria Tan attended NYAS (New York Acting School Singapore) and went on to NAFA (Nanyang Academy of fine arts) and graduated in 2009. Upon graduation, Gloria worked with leading Malay theatre companies and received a Life! Theatre Best Ensemble award for Bilik/Ahmad. She is a familiar face in Suria and acted in her first movie, Banting, which premiered in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand in 2014. In 2016, she performed in a one-woman show titled Kancil: The chronicles of One and Zero with Zeugma and in that same year, she devised a piece titled My name is Jamie for Channel News Asia on depression in Youths. Since 2013, she has been touring with Osaka’s critically acclaimed theatre company, Gumbo theatre, and starred in Hagi Daimyo for Osaka’s Sakai arts fest and received a cross-cultural award in Kyoto for Kizugawa Tea Party in 2018. Her collaboration with Bali and Surabaya under The Necessary Stage for Untitled Cow was well received by the press across Indonesia and sold out. Since 2015 she has been co-developing a formula for multi-sensory shows for children with ASD under The Republic Cultural Centre and continues to work with them till today and is on the Board of Directors for the Asian Youth Festival.

Izzul Irfan

Izzul Irfan is an actor and theatre-maker. His most recent acting works include Teater Ekamatra’s virtual Baca Skrip series for Anak Melayu and Genap 40 (2020). He has also starred in Teater Ekamatra’s A Clockwork Orange (2019), Angkat (2019) for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Desert Blooms (2019) for Centre 42’s The Vault Series, and Without Reason (2017) for the M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival. Izzul was also part of Young & Wild’s graduating performance Anything Can Happen/ Something Must Happen (2019).

Izzul dabbles in playwriting and directing as well - he wrote his first play Sampan in 2016 and he has since written an original musical Runaway in 2018. He has also directed two productions: Void Deck (2019) and Wilderness (2019). He is currently pursuing his undergraduate studies at Yale-NUS College.

Indumathi Tamilselvan

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Acting from LASALLE College of the Arts and a Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology from Singapore Polytechnic, Indu is an all-rounded Theatre Practitioner and the Founder of Tongue in Cheek Productions. She is a fervent believer in the use of theatre to reach out and shape the world we live in. In LASALLE, Indu has represented herself as a trusted leader among her peers with remarkable academic achievements, standing in First Class. She was nominated by the Dean to represent in LASALLE’s Academic Board. She represented her school and her country at the ITI/ UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts Student Festival 2020. She was the pioneer batch of KOLEKTIF, a collaboration with National Gallery Singapore for “Light to Night” Festival, 2021.

Her works on stage include SubTITLED 1.0 directed by Alvin Tan, VASSA directed by Daniel Jenkins, Nimita’s Place directed by Edith Podesta, Twelfth Night directed by Michael Thomas Earley, Anitgone directed by Ang Gey Pin, Children’s Musical Theatre: Gloobaloo directed by Sugiman Rahmat, Ancient Civilization Museum: Neon Light Dreaming Event and After Dark Festival, BABES Forum Theatre Production: Dear Nobody, AWARE’s Forum Theatre: Just A Bad Day.

ABOUT ZEUGMA Zeugma is an artist collective whose aim is to explore storytelling through experiments in the convergence of texts, performance, sounds & visuals. Made up of Rizman Putra, Safuan Johari, Zulfadli ‘Big’ Rashid & Brandon Tay; the intention is to find new ways to present narratives through the merging of their individual artistic practices. They have a fascination for reconstructing Asian folklores and investigating the idea of cultural identity. They have presented The Chronicles of One & Zero: Kanchil for Singapore Fringe Festival 2016.

VISITOR SAFETY INFORMATION Arts House Limited (AHL) places the utmost importance on the safety and well-being of all patrons, staff and artists visiting our venues. Please be assured all our venues are SG Clean certified and that Safe Management Measures (SMMs) have been implemented across all venues.

For your health and safety, please observe the following when visiting any of our venues, including:

TraceTogether check-in and check-out required

Mandatory temperature- taking upon arrival

Face masks to be worn at all times

Ensure safe distancing of one metre at anytime

Sanitize hands before and after the session

As the COVID-19 situation in Singapore evolves, these measures will be updated in accordance to the latest advisories issued by the Singapore Government. For the latest advisories, please visit sifa.sg All information is correct at the time of print. Every reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information within, hence, Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) cannot accept responsibility for errors and/or omissions however caused. Every effort has been made to identify copyright holders. We deeply regret that if, despite our concerted efforts, any copyright holders have been overlooked or omitted. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or the official policy and position of SIFA and their related corporations. Any reproduction, retransmission, republication, or other use of all or part of this publication is expressly prohibited, unless prior written permission has been granted by SIFA or the appropriate copyright owner. SIFA reserves the right to make changes and modifications to the programme without prior notice. For updates, please visit our website at sifa.sg

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ART HOUSE LIMITED BOARD

Chairperson Wilson Tan Members Georgina Phua Joseph Ong Kelvin Ang Kenneth Kwok Lynette Pang Madeleine Lee Maniza Jumabhoy Ong Chao Choon

ABOUT ARTS HOUSE LIMITED

Arts House Limited (AHL) is a not-for-profit organisation committed to enriching lives through the arts. AHL manages two key landmarks located in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District – The Arts House, a multi-disciplinary arts centre with a focus on literary programming, and the Victoria Theatre & Victoria Concert Hall, a heritage building that is home to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. It also runs the Goodman Arts Centre and Aliwal Arts Centre, two creative enclaves for artists, arts groups and creative businesses, and performing arts space Drama Centre. AHL presents the Singapore International Festival of Arts, the annual pinnacle celebration of performance and interdisciplinary arts in Singapore commissioned by the National Arts Council.

AHL was set up in 11 December 2002 as a company limited by guarantee (CLG) under the National Arts Council and was formerly known as The Old Parliament House Limited. It was officially renamed Arts House Limited on 19 March 2014.

In 2020, AHL was appointed cultural place manager of the Civic District.

ABOUT SIFA

As Singapore’s annual pinnacle performing arts festival, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) presents captivating and diverse works across theatre, music, dance, film and visual arts. First launched as the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1977, the festival has gone through several evolutions and inspired generations of arts lovers and practitioners. Today, the highly anticipated festival is a high point on Singapore’s arts and cultural calendar. SIFA continues its festival mission to champion the creation and presentation of Singaporean and international works.

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS MANAGEMENT

Manager, Programming

Designer

Executive Director

Shridar Mani

Daphne Ong

Tan Boon Hui

Programmer

Ticketing Specialists

Festival Director

Nur Shireen Marican

Debbie Ng

Gaurav Kripalani

Producing Intern

Allison Lai

Senior Director, Finance

Ng Xue Qi

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Ng Soon Lee

PRODUCTION

Specialist

Senior Director, Strategy

Production Managers

Adeline Loh

& Planning

Chan Silei

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Yeow Ju Li

Victoria Lim

Amelia Su

Head, Producing

Production Coordinators

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Sara Fang

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Chia Kai Lin

Head, Production

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& Communications

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Kailash

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Nor Limah

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Senior Managers

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Managers

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Izyan Nooraini Bte Ramlee

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Kelly Roxanne

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Md Firdaus bin Wari