Late-Night Texting is back again! For the third year running, Centre 42 throws open its doors for two nights of text-based experiences. From sunset, come wander the grounds of this historic blue house on Waterloo Street and catch over 30 short plays by up-and-coming theatre collectives Ground Z-O, Dark Matter Theatrics, Main Tulis Group and The Second Breakfast Company. Stroll around to the back for a more literary experience with a pop-up store and programming by BooksActually. Don’t forget to refuel for more texting adventures through the night at the Coffee Bandits food truck parked under the mango tree.
Admission to all programmes is free, first come, first served.
#LNT2018 #Centre42
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Click here to download a handy programme schedule! (Updated: 20 Aug 2018)
What does it mean to love and be in love in Singapore? Have our ideas of love changed over time? “Lovebites” explores the love between friends, within the family, and between lovers as portrayed in four pairs of excerpts from Singaporean plays. In each set, one excerpt is from a play written before 2005, and the other, after 2005.
Performed by Jaisilan Sathiasilan, Kenneth Chia, Mark Benedict Cheong, Nur Hasyimah bte Hassan, and Shannen Tan
This programme has been rated
Advisory 16 (Some Mature Content and Coarse Language)
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SET 1: THE LOVE BETWEEN FRIENDS 25 Aug | 7pm – 7.30pm | Black Box
THIS CHORD AND OTHERS (1991) by Haresh Sharma Sukdev, Gerald and Thomas are colleagues and friends, but a job promotion and the office talent competition threaten to upend their relationship.
NORMAL (2015) by Faith Ng Secondary 5 Normal Academic students Ashley and Daphne struggle to meet the expectations of their parents, their teachers and society, as well as their own expectations of themselves.
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SET 2: THE LOVE BETWEEN LOVERS 25 Aug | 8pm – 8.30pm | Black Box
MIMI FAN (1962) by Lim Chor Pee Set in the swinging 60’s, young bar girl Mimi Fan meets Chan Fei-Loong, an English-educated man who has recently returned from studies overseas.
MOSAIC (2015) by Joel Tan On the eve of an old playground’s demolition, four young adults cross paths in a night to remember.
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SET 3: THE LOVE IN THE FAMILY 25 Aug | 9pm – 9.30pm | Black Box
ROUND AND ROUND THE DINING TABLE (1988) by Ovidia Yu Tension mounts in an Indian family when one daughter returns home from overseas and another is revealed to be in a relationship with a man from another race.
THE WEDDING PIG (2017) by Chelsea Cheo A wedding, some holiday magnets and a golden pig put strain on the relationship between sisters Leah and Debbie.
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SET 4: AUDIENCE CHOICE 25 Aug | 10pm – 10.30pm | Black Box
The two most popular plays (voted via Instagram polls) from the earlier 3 sets will be performed. Details of the poll to follow soon.
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THE SECOND BREAKFAST COMPANY is a youth-initiated theatre group that started in 2016. One of the tenets of The Second Breakfast Company is to stage local works in order to build a consciousness of the local canon. In the same way that international plays are read, staged and re-staged, the company hopes that the Singapore audience too will understand local works in the same way. Its second tenet is to support new works written and performed by young artists of their generation.
(Photo: Damien Aaron Lim)
Seven playwrights of Main Tulis Group will present new original nine-minute plays in two recurring sessions. Whether you come for “Arrival” or “Departure”, you’ll be sampling an evocatively diverse range of perspectives in bite-sized dramatised readings. Performed in English and Malay with English surtitles.
Performed by Adib Kosnan, Dawn Teo, Farhan Roy Rani, Ibrahim Sawifi, Kaykay Nizam, Nessa Anwar, Saiful Amri, and Siti Zuraida
This programme has been rated
Advisory 16 (Some Mature Content and Coarse Language)
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SETS 1 & 3: ARRIVAL 24 Aug | 7pm – 7.30pm & 9pm – 9.30pm | Black Box
BLOCK 15D by Hazwan Norly Zack and Rahmat are two strangers who meet at Block 15D. Two years later, they find each other again, and reconnect. Performed in Malay with English surtitles.
JODOH by Zulfadli Rashid Yusoff has a conversation with his father, Fadil, about life, loss and love. Performed in Malay with English surtitles.
LANDING by Raimi Safari On the 19th-storey landing of an HDB flat, two characters muster up the gumption to follow through with a hefty pact they had made. Performed in English and Malay with English surtitles.
PELANGGAN by Farhanah Diyanah (FD) A young salesman meets his old client for the last time. Performed in Malay with English surtitles.
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SETS 2 & 4: DEPARTURE 24 Aug | 8pm – 8.30pm & 10pm – 10.30pm | Black Box
BUREAU OF REGRETTABLE DECISIONS (BRD) by Adib Kosnan Ash arrives at the Bureau of Regrettable Decisions, a department that scrutinises the decisions one has made throughout life. Performed in English.
CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART by Nessa Anwar Boy meets Girl. Boy likes Girl. Twenty years later, Boy is sentenced to death by hanging. Is Girl able to have one last conversation with her childhood sweetheart? Performed in English and Malay with English surtitles.
THE CLEAN UP by Ahmad Musta’ain Bin Khamis Datin Fauziah is willing to do what it takes to support her husband’s political win. But how does the Permaisuri (Queen) of Parti PUKI (Persatuan Umum, Keluarga & Individu / United Public, Family & Individuals) feel when her husband sends Amber to help her with the clean up? Performed in English and Malay with English surtitles.
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MAIN TULIS GROUP (translated literally as “Play Write Group”) is a writers’ circle for playwrights who create work in English and Malay. It is a safe space where Malay playwrights of various ages can meet to share their works-in-progress, exchange ideas and provide critique, with the view to produce more original writing for the stage. Centre 42 is the home of Main Tulis Group. Its current members are: Adib Kosnan, Ahmad Musta’ain Khamis, Farhanah Diyanah (FD), Hazwan Norly, Nabilah Said, Nessa Anwar, Raimi Safari, Sabrina Dzulkifli, and Zulfadli Rashid.
“Eat My Shorts” is a presentation of one dozen 10-minute plays written by local playwrights. They will be performed by four actors over four sets. These short plays were selected from an open call based on the theme “short-sighted”. Come enjoy bite-sized theatre in which the unofficial rule is “minimal fuss, maximum fun”!
Performed by Danielle Cutiongco, Jasmine Xie, Salif Hardie, and Sharda Harrison
This programme has been rated
Advisory 16 (Some Mature Content)
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SET 1 24 & 25 Aug | 7.30pm – 8pm | Rehearsal Studio
THIS TIME NEXT YEAR WE’LL ALL BE DEAD by Dora Tan This time next year we’ll all be dead. So what?
MAYDAY! MAYDAY! by Isaac Lim Dreams are for the longsighted people to pursue, but are we often short of paying attention to the true mental states of the people we dream for?
STRANGE FRUIT by Christopher Fok An art dealer and a buyer come to very strange conclusions about a work.
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SET 2 24 & 25 Aug | 8.30pm – 9pm | Rehearsal Studio
HOLDING HANDS by Isaac Chong A blind man, a deaf man, and a mute walk into a park.
SEEKING JUSTICE by Tan Kwan Boon An online vigilante upholds justice for her friend but things did not go as planned.
THEIR EYES PLAY TRICKS IN THE DARK by Edward Eng A play about how we forget things that frighten us.
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SET 3 24 & 25 Aug | 9.30pm – 10pm | Rehearsal Studio
SUPER MERMAID by Ng Swee San When her mentor, a former superhero turned bureaucrat tries to retire her, Super Mermaid fights back.
BETWEEN TWO LIVES by Ivan Choong Friendships that define growing up and coming of age.
THE DEVIL YOU DON’T KNOW by Zhenhua Lai Sloth and Greed discuss who’s been Pride’s MVP for the era.
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SET 4 24 & 25 Aug | 10.30pm – 11pm | Rehearsal Studio
THE BLESSER OF UTENSILS by Christopher Fok The Kitchen God cooks a dish of comfort food for a loved one.
COME AS YOU MIGHT BE by Xie Shi Min A 15-year-old girl who almost fails out of school meets up with her future selves from parallel universes.
NIGHT AND DAY by Kaylene Tan Together for too long, a couple have a late night conversation.
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DARK MATTER THEATRICS is a theatre collective interested in the uncommon in common stories. Founded by playwright-director Christopher Fok, actor Lian Sutton, and playwright Marcia Vanderstraaten, they search for the magic in the mundane, focusing on creating contemporary theatre that interests, inspires and invigorates the common folk. They aim to foster artistic development in the people involved in their productions with an emphasis on local playwrights. They also aim to create universality through specificity with the stories that come from the common folk, in hopes of giving voice to a generation of people who have much to say about the society and world they live in.
“Read to Teleport” is a transportive tool that brings every reader to different worlds — made possible by the vast literature that the world owns today. This edition of “Read to Teleport” will have a pop-up store selling a range of books and magazines, new publication launches, and panels featuring local literary figures.
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24 Aug, Meeting Room
7pm – 8pm | MEET THE AUTHOR: JY YANG Local science fiction writer JY Yang recently published a series of novellas collectively titled Tensorate. Come hear from Yang, who will be sharing a few excerpts from these books, and discuss them together with the moderator and the audience. This session will be moderated by Kenny Leck.
9pm – 10pm | LAUNCH OF THE IDEOLOGY MAGAINE #03 The third edition of The Ideology Magazine will be launched at “Read to Teleport”. Find out more about what this issue is all about and the creative process behind it from the publication’s founder, Eve Yeo, who also wrote and illustrated the content for this new issue. This session will be moderated by Kenny Leck.
25 Aug, Meeting Room
7pm – 8pm | PANEL #1: WRITING OUR CONFESSIONS
Featuring Pooja Nansi, Pranamika Subhlaxmi, and Jollin Tan
Moderated by Cyril Wong Poetry is close to the heart and even closer when it’s written like a confession. These poets have written about their identity and their lives, so come and watch them discuss their work, and their growth as they continue to share their personal stories through their poetry.
9pm – 10pm | PANEL #2: MILLENNIAL POETRY — WHAT’S THE DEAL?
Featuring Topaz Winters, Crispin Rodrigues, Tan Lixin, and Werner Kho
Moderated by Pooja Nansi Poetry that can fit into an Instagram post, and poetry that everyone can relate to. Sounds like something everyone should enjoy, yet this current trend has the world divided. Listen to millennial poets give their take on this controversial topic.
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BOOKSACTUALLY (est. 2005) is an independent bookstore specialising in Literature (including obscure and critical works). In their bookstore, you can often find literary trinkets in the form of stationery and other lovely tchotchkes. They publish and distribute books under their imprint Math Paper Press, and they also hand-stitch notebooks and produce stationery under Birds & Co. . .
Singapore is not just one island, but made up of many, many islands! “Legends of the Islands” tells the stories of four of these islands. In a multilingual street wayang performance, three actors will tell you three different versions of these island legends. Whose story will you believe? Come, listen and vote! Performed in English, Malay, Mandarin and Hokkien. No surtitles provided.
Performed by Hang Qian Chou, Lina Yu, and Suhaili Safari.
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SET 1 24 & 25 Aug | 7.30pm – 8pm | Front Courtyard
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SET 2 24 & 25 Aug | 8.30pm – 9pm | Front Courtyard
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SET 3 24 & 25 Aug | 9.30pm – 10pm | Front Courtyard
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SET 4 24 & 25 Aug | 10.30pm – 11pm | Front Courtyard
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GroundZ-0 is a newly-formed multilingual experimental inter-space initiated by Zelda Tatiana Ng, which aims to explore, research, promote and produce intercultural and cross-genres/disciplines works in Singapore. GroundZ-0 is interested in the experimentation of traditional arts forms (especially Chinese Opera and Japanese Noh) in contemporary theatre. It also seeks opportunities to work with various international artists in order to share research and learn knowledge across nationalities, races and cultures. Through explorations and experiments, GroundZ-0 aspires to find, define and redefine the Singaporean and global identities.
Late-night texting is hard work, so don’t forget to refuel throughout the night! A regular fixture at Late-Night Texting, the bright yellow Coffee Bandits food truck will once again be parked under our mango tree. Make out like a bandit and head on over to fill up on a delectable array of snacks and tipples.
24 & 25 Aug | 7pm – 11pm | Front Courtyard
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COFFEE BANDITS is Singapore’s only coffee specialty food truck. Besides coffee, they serve food and pride themselves on great service. This is the third year Coffee Bandits is partnering with Centre 42 for the Night Festival event; fuelling visitors with night bites, caffeine and alcohol to last the texting experiences. . . .
