IN THE SILENCE OF YOUR HEART | by Kaylene Tan

In the Silence of Your Heart is an invitation to enter the world of a charming politician and inveterate drinker. Lend him your ears because he needs to talk.

Thian has been paralysed for 13 years. He’s been still and silent all this time but his mind has not stopped dancing. He gets by with the two things he does have: his memory and his imagination. Today, his world is trembling. It is the birth day of his dead daughter and there is a hole in his foot.

Wakeful and dreaming, he relives his life’s triumphs, passions and betrayals. But at the heart of his meandering memories, is a question: have I disappointed as a father?

When the day is done, he remembers one last story… this one’s for the road.

Meditative and operatic, In the Silence of Your Heart is an in-ear audio experience for the theatre. Performed by Jalyn Han and Tan Hui Er, with the voice of Lim Kay Tong as ‘Man’.

Credit source: Esplanade Presents: The Studios 2018 

Kaylene Tan’s new play, In the Silence of Your Heart, is inspired by her grandfather’s experience as a stroke victim who was paralysed for all 13 years that she knew him. The piece is an attempt to imagine what could be going through the head of someone who had been bedridden for a long time. After spending nine months writing the script, Kaylene invited actor Lim Kay Tong to do a test-read in January 2018. She then edited the text, and Lim’s final recorded version would be played to audience members through headphones during the performance.

The workshopping period with actors Jalyn Han and Tan Hui Er took place in January and March, when they explored the physical elements of the script and created stylised movements derived from the mnemonic for stroke warning signs: F.A.S.T. (facial weakness, arm weakness, speech difficulty and time to act fast). The pair would perform live in the theatre space.

Finally, sensory elements such as visual media, sound design, and smells were added to the piece in order to create and flesh out the world that the paralysed man would experience.

CREATIVE TEAM
Playwright & Director – Kaylene Tan
Kaylene Tan has created performances as well as audio and site-specific works as a writer, director and performer with the theatre company, spell#7 (www.spell7performance.org).

Her sound work includes Desire Paths (2004–2014), an immersive audio walk of Little India, Sky Duet (2008), an audio experience set at the Singapore Flyer, commissioned by the Singapore Biennale, Dream-Work/DreamHome (2009), an audio walking performance for the Singapore Arts Festival set between Shenton Way and Chinatown.

In 2008, she received the NUS-FASS and The Old Parliament House (TOPH) Writing Fellowship where she developed an audiovideo triptych set in Peninsula Plaza, along the Singapore River and at the Armenian Church. She was the recipient of the Arts Creation Fund in 2010, where she developed an audio-video journey along the NorthEast Line, Ghostwalking. Kaylene, together with Paul Rae, were awarded the 2003 Life! Theatre Award for Best Script for the play, Balance.

As a writer, Kaylene has collaborated with numerous companies, including Theatreworks (Pulse, Balance, Ma:Moment), Orangedot Productions (These Children Are Dead), Evil Empire (The End of History), and also created work with Tan Kheng Hua (Teacher’s Day and #7 for the Georgetown Festival) and Sean Tobin (The Perfection of 10). Her most recent work was for TNS’ M1 Singapore Fringe Festival in 2017, Deep in the Heart of Me. She is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.

Dramaturg – Charlene Rajendran
Charlene Rajendran is a theatre educator, dramaturg and writer, whose involvement in experimental performance began when she was a teenager, working with pioneering Malaysian children’s theatre director, Janet Pillai. She has performed, directed and written for the theatre, as well as facilitated theatre workshops and dialogues. More recently she was the dramaturg in interdisciplinary and collaborative arts projects such as Both Sides, Now (Drama Box and ArtsWok, 2015-2018), Ghost Writer (The Necessary Stage, 2016), The Malay Man and His Chinese Father (Akulah Bimbo Sakti, 2016) and It Won’t Be Too Long: The Cemetery (Drama Box, Singapore International Festival of Arts 2015). In 2017, she planned and facilitated Seminar in Singapore, produced by Pro Helvetia and Singapore International Festival of Arts, in which 12 international artists participated in a week-long dialogue and exploration of performance and culture. She researches contemporary performance, issues of identity and play-based pedagogies, with a view to expanding contextually-based discourses on performance-making and arts education. Most recently she co-edited Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit and Contemporary Malaysian Theatre (2018). She is currently a member of the Internal Advisory Committee for UNESCO-NIE Centre for Arts Research in Education (CARE) and the Co-Director of Asian Dramaturgs’ Network.

Woman – Jalyn
Han Jalyn is a theatre practitioner who started her career with the SAF Music & Drama Company (1979–1998). She currently works with various local theatre groups and community organisations, as well as mainstream and special needs schools. She was a protégé of Kuo Pao Kun in acting and directing, and has been involved in many landmark theatre productions in Singapore.

Recent theatrical projects include:

• Grandmother Tongue by W!LD RICE
• Voyage at Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
• Soul Searching at Kreta Ayer Square, Pop-Up Noise 10
• Slices of Life by Glowers
• OPEN HOMES by SIFA 2015 and 2017

Jalyn is also actively involved in creating multi-disciplinary and inter-generational works with people from all walks of life. View her work at www.inarts.com.sg.

Girl – Tan Hui Er
Hui Er is currently a final year student at Nanyang Technological University, majoring in film. Playing the lead in Sun Koh’s award-winning short The Secret Heaven when she was seven piqued her interest in film production. When not producing films, Hui Er will be performing for the stage. Her keen interest in physical theatre and Asian dance theatre grew during her O- and A-level Theatre Studies training. Since then, she has learnt bharatanatyam from Maya Dance Theatre (2014) and was part of the residency programme with The Kaizen M.D. (2015). She has since performed in Ways of Wandering for SIFA (2014), Going Local 4 for Buds Theatre Company (2015), All on a Summer’s Day for Act 3 International (2016), National Memory Project as part of the Twenty Something Theatre Festival (2016), and The Wedding Pig for The Second Breakfast Company as part of the Asian Youth Theatre Festival (2017). She also had a memorable time directing NTU WKW’s adaptation of Those Who Can’t, Teach (2015). Hui Er is certain that In the Silence of Your Heart will not only be another unforgettable experience but an enriching masterclass for her.

Voice of Man – Lim Kay Tong
Lim Kay Tong is a veteran film, TV and stage actor. Notably, he starred opposite Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (1986), Pierce Brosnan in Noble House (1988) and Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace (1999), and was the lead actor in Growing Up (1996–2001) and Perth (2004). Lim has been called “Singapore’s finest actor”, “Singapore’s best-known actor” and Singapore’s answer to thespians such as Ian McKellen and Alec Guinness. Lim is a cofounder and board member of TheatreWorks.

Notable works include Off Limits (1988) opposite Willem Dafoe, Mediacorp’s Growing Up (1996–2001), Perth (2004), The Pupil (2010–2011) where Kay Tong won the Asian Television Award’s Best Drama Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Goh Lay Kuan & Kuo Pao Kun (2012–2013) which garnered him his second The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards nomination for Best Actor.

Sound Designer – Chris Wenn
Chris Wenn is a sound designer for theatre and contemporary performance. He lives in Melbourne, Australia. His sound design and compositions have featured in Liminal Theatre’s Oedipus – a poetic requiem (2008, 2009) and Antigone: The Descent Across the Bridge of Acheron (2009); Ulrike Meinhof Sings (2011), The Drowning Girls (2012), A1 Rolling Steakhouse + House (2012) and the critically-acclaimed I Am The Wind (2012) by Turtle Lab; Whiteley’s Incredible Blue (2011) and Triumph (2016) at fortyfivedownstairs; The Noahs (2013) and For the Love of Pina (2015) with rollercoaster; and Dirty Pretty Theatre’s Something Natural but Very Childish (2010) and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (2014). Other notable work includes Approximate Translation (2016) at Malthouse, curated by Felix Ching Ching Ho; Antigone X (2017), by Zeb Fontaine at Theatre Works; and the critically-acclaimed Rust and Bone (2016), directed by Daniel Clarke at La Mama Courthouse.

His work with Red Stitch Actors Theatre includes Day One. A Hotel, Evening. (2011), The Motherf***er With The Hat (2012), 4000 Miles, About Tommy, Herding Cats, ROAM, and NSFW (all 2013), Belleville (2014), 11 Middletown (2015) and Colder (2017). Chris’s sound design for The Trouble With Harry (2014) was nominated for a Green Room Award in the Independent Theatre category. His sound design for Rust and Bone was nominated for a 2016 Green Room Award in the same category.

Set Designer – Ling Hao Born
1968 in Sarawak, Malaysia. Graduated from University of New South Wales, Australia in 1992. Established Linghao Architects in SIngapore in 2000. Awarded Singapore Presidents Design Award in 2013 and 2014. Exhibited at TOTO Gallery Ma 30th Anniversary Exhibition The Asian Everyday: Possibilities in the Shifting World, in Tokyo in 2015. Visiting Associate Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2015 and 2017.

Lighting Designer – Lim Woan Wen
A graduate of the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies programme, Woan Wen received the inaugural National Arts Council Arts Professional Scholarship in 2001 and trained at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in stage lighting design. She has won multiple Best Lighting Design awards at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards and was conferred the Young Artist Award in 2011 by the National Arts Council. Woan Wen divides her time between freelance projects, working with The Finger Players as their associate lighting designer, and making work as one-third of the design collective INDEX.

Visual Media – Designer Jasmine Ng
Jasmine Ng is a filmmaker who tells stories across platforms, from film to television, theatre and site-specific installations (Moveable Feast, Eating Air, SHIRKERS, Lonely Planet Six Degrees, FUTURE FEED and Our Town). She has conceptualised cross-disciplinary works, collaborating with different communities with the support of the Lien Foundation and the Khoo Teck Puat Foundation. She has also commissioned and guided young filmmakers and animators on projects such as the immersive arts experience, PRISM (for the Institute of Policy Studies) and the on-going BOTH SIDES, NOW project, a multi-edition, multi-media installation project exploring issues on death and dying, installed in public spaces such as hospitals and heartland neighbourhoods. Other creative collaborations include those with dance and theatre groups. An advocate for the film and arts community and for the creative industry, she is also one of the co-founders and current president of the Singapore Association of Motion Picture Professionals.

Visual Media Engineer – Wu Jun Han
Wu Jun Han works in the audio-visual and applies his skill set wherever he’s needed. Wu has experience in VJ-ing and visual operation, engages in sound design, and is constantly working on his personal projects. He’s also currently an adjunct lecturer at NAFA. 12

PRODUCTION TEAM
Production Stage Manager – Kaykay Nizam Khairulnizam
or more affectionately known as Kaykay Nizam began as a street dancer in Fantastic Four Crew, the largest dance crew in Singapore and now a member in the alumnus group, Fantastic All Stars.

Kaykay graduated from the BA in Theatre Arts (Acting) programme at NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts), and is now serving as Company Director of Ape Studios Pte Ltd. Kaykay is also a core member of The Kaizen M.D, a multi-disciplinary collective specialising in contemporary arts.

He began acting on stage in the BA (Hons) Theatre Arts production of Beyond The Horizon in his freshman year. From then on, he’s played roles such as Mr Samsa in NAFA’s 75th Anniversary production of The Metamorphosis, and most recently as Jebat in Cinta Tuah Jebat, a site-specific dance on Pulau Ubin and a commissioned piece for State of Motion by the Asian Film Archive.

Other theatre credits include: Makan Hati by Farhanah Diyanah, Main Tulis Group at Night Festival 2018; Move ____, As We Move written and performed by him, produced by The Kaizen M.D.; Adukku Veetu Annasamy, by RDG, an Esplanade commission for Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of the Arts, where Kaykay served as an actor and a production manager; and Singapore: Inside Out, a travelling showcase of Singapore artists to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday, performed in Beijing, London and New York before the jubilee performance in Singapore.

Assistant Stage Manager – Shivani Rajan
Shivani Rajan is an undergraduate student from the BA(Hons) Arts Management programme at NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts), and is pursuing her career as an arts manager while serving as the production / stage manager of Ape Studios Pte Ltd. Her passion in the arts started when she was a dancer of Indian classical dance form bharathanatyam. Since then, her pursuit has led her to many productions with diverse people, including collaborating as the stage manager for performances such as Pathey Nimidam 2017, a 10-minute theatre festival; and Pazhuppu, a youth theatre performance which also represented Singapore at the Asian Youth Theatre Festival. Her most challenging achievement yet was being the stage manager for the Adukku Veetu Annasamy 3, an Esplanade commission as part of the Raga series.

Other credits include: assistant stage manager for Higher Ground Era’s Glass Canvas; festival ambassador for Singapore International Festival of the Arts; and stage and operations manager for ANDSOFORTH, Kids in Wonderland @ Qiren.

Credit source: Esplanade Presents: The Studios 2018