The Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) may have been cancelled this year, but that doesn't mean you can't get your theatre fix from the comfort of your cushioned seat. Following the success of digital programmes that ooze rich musical elements earlier in June and July, The Necessary Stage is taking you back to The Year of No Return with a digital version from August 15.
Originally scheduled to be staged in this year's festival, the SIFA-commissioned production presents the environmental crisis from the perspective of different individuals and discourses. It showcases how climate change can have a major impact on people from different walks of life, from an advocate to the environmental scientist and the regular man on the street. On stage, these conversations are translated into a dramatic constellation of light, sound, and multimedia elements. And you can see it all in the flesh when it makes its world premiere at next year's festival.
In the meantime, you can enjoy teasers of the production through the lens of its various characters via a Zoom play-reading session and four vodcast episodes released on the 15th of each month from now until November. These vignettes are presented through digitalised film, sound, movement, and text that unpacks the themes and ideas within a key strand of the narrative. Together with the vodcast, it gives you a further look into the episodes within the play, including one featuring some of the actors stepping out of their characters to explore their own relationship with the environment. Perhaps, this might even open up a conversation to have with family and friends: how far will you go to save the planet?
A collaboration by local playwright Haresh Sharma and director Alvin Tan, as well as Filipino playwright Rody Vera, The Year of No Return features a diverse cast of actors and artists from Singapore and the region. Get acquainted with the various facets and characters from the play through the series of vodcasts before it undergoes rewrites for the final production premiering in 2021. The episodes are available via SIFA's online platform SIFA v2.020.
