Dear Patron,

The theatre industry remains hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and SRT continues to navigate our way through this challenging landscape. It is thanks to all of you that we are still here, able to tell our stories, to bring some relief, hope and wonder to our community despite the shifting sands of a global pandemic not yet resolved.

Or perhaps it is because of these shifting sands that theatre is actually more important than ever.  

Today’s performance of Lungs is a wonderful piece of theatre. Stripped bare of “bells and whistles” it narrates the story of a lifelong relationship between two people that could be you and me. A story that is raw, real and particularly relevant.

For we live in unstable times. Everything can change in a moment and yet we have to make decisions about getting jobs, organising long-term financial goals, having babies. Just like the characters in the play – but for different reasons – we find ourselves wondering how we can plan such “normal” things in a strangely out-of-whack world.

Duncan Macmillan has penned a gem of a play that I think you will find stays with you for a long while after the theatre visit.

Our two wonderful actors Oon Shu An and Joshua Lim masterfully bring the characters to life under Daniel Jenkins’ brilliant direction. You just know you have something special when tears are shed on the first day of rehearsals while working through the emotions of the characters.

A huge thank you goes out to the creative team - Petrina Dawn Tan, Tan Jia Hui, Genevieve Peck and Guo Ningru. They have worked hard to create the look of the production utilising recycled materials, in line with our vision to approach producing from a more sustainable approach.

A deep-felt thank you to my amazing team for standing strong and together through the changes and uncertainties of our times; to our annual partners Bloomberg and Deloitte; and finally to you for being here tonight trusting us with your time.

CHARLOTTE NORS

 

 

Playwright Duncan Macmillan says you should write plays around questions that make you nervous, things you sometimes believe even though you know you shouldn’t and topics that make you confront things you’d rather not. In the midst of climate change, a global pandemic and general unpredictability, Lungs, is a frighteningly timely play, that gives voice to a generation for whom anxiety and uncertainty is a way of life.

Lungs follows the relationship between a man and a woman attempting to get pregnant while considering the environmental impacts of birth. Society celebrates pregnancy by throwing baby showers and promotes large families by encouraging our children to produce grandchildren. We are taught that all the benefits of pregnancy and children outweigh the negatives and yet the world is expected to add several billion people in the next few decades, each one producing more emissions and putting more strain on the planet’s resources. Future generations will grow up in a world that is drastically different and more dangerous than the current one we inhabit. Both philosophers and scientists who study climate change agree that the best way to protect our children is to stop having them. However, would you give up having children in order to save the planet? 

Lungs is not just a play about saving the world. It is a play about how we save our relationships with each other.  It confronts the disintegration of the world, through the lens of a couple’s disintegrating relationship, highlighting the need for communication and connectivity with those we hold dear. It brings attention to the importance of taking responsibility for the choices we make and understanding how these choices will affect the generations to come. Relationships can be difficult, planning for the future in the chaotic world we live in even harder, but finding happiness and a connection with the ones you love is probably the most difficult and the most important of all.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work on this script with Joshua and Shu An, two remarkably brave, open and honest actors. I thank them for their hard work and commitment. Thank you to my creative team, Petrina, Ning, Genevieve and Jia Hui, and my Stage Management and technical team. Also thank you to every one at SRT for their support with this production. Finally, thank you, the audience, for being brave, for joining us in the theatre during these uncertain times, for supporting the arts and for allowing us to share this story with you. 

DANIEL JENKINS

 

 

They are an everyday couple in a fairly stable relationship. Out of the blue, he pops the question about having a baby. What follows is an emotional rollercoaster ride that is LUNGS, an intensely intimate, intricate and funny play about what it means to be a couple confronted by a world of uncertainty. They grapple with making responsible choices in the face of rising social inequity, environmental disaster and political unrest. Watch what happens when life takes over and their principles are pushed aside.

 

CAST
(in speaking order)

Oon Shu An

Joshua Lim

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Playwright
Duncan Macmillan

Director
Daniel Jenkins

Set Designer
Petrina Dawn Tan

Costume Designer
Tan Jia Hui

Lighting Designer
Genevieve Peck

Sound Designer
Guo Ningru

 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Stage Manager
Justina Khoo

Assistant Stage Manager
Chantel Goh

 

 

Joshua Lim

Joshua is a multi-faceted performer. His stage work has earned him nominations for Best Actor in Starring Hitler As Jekyll And Hyde (The Finger Players) and 招: When The Cold Wind Blows (Wild Rice) at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards in 2017 and 2019.

TV and film: Haresh Sharma’s Fundamentally Happy (nomination for Best Actor, 2016 Hanoi Film Festival); Reunion ( Mediacorp Channel 5). Hosting: Why It Matters (CNA), Singapore Youth Award ceremony, Insights Conference for the Ministry of Communication and Information. Joshua has also narrated audiobooks such as Impractical Uses Of Cake by Yeoh Jo-Ann and The First Wave by Loke Hoe Yeong (Storytel).

 

Oon Shu An

Oon Shu An is a graduate of the BA Acting program at LASALLE College of the Arts, a former member of BUDs Youth Theatre and co-founded TheatreStrays. She is currently an Associate Artist with Checkpoint Theatre with whom she did her one-woman show #UnicornMoment which was nominated for Best Original Script at the Life! Theatre Awards. She was also nominated for Best Actress for Chinglish (Pangdemonium) and Mergers and Accusations (Esplanade).

TV and feature film: Marco Polo (Netflix), How to be a Good Girl (HOOQ), Rubbers, Our Sister Mambo, 4Love, Republic of Food.

Digital: Tried and Tested (clicknetwork.tv) garnered over 74 million views, My 5-minute Magic Routine, went viral on tumblr and was featured on Buzzfeed.

 

Duncan Macmillan Playwright

Duncan Macmillan is an award winning writer for theatre, television and film. His theatre work includes Lungs; People, Places and Things; Every Brilliant Thing; Rosmersholm (adapt. Henrik Ibsen) and 1984 (adapt. George Orwell, co-written and co-directed with Robert Icke). His work has been performed throughout the world, including the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Royal Court, St Ann’s Warehouse, Festival d’Avignon, Theatertreffen, in the West End and on Broadway. His screen work has appeared on the BBC, HBO, Netflix and at the Berlin and London Film Festivals.

Daniel Jenkins Director

Directing credits include: 1984, The Fall, The Roses of Eyam, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Laramie Project, The Trojan Women, Lord of the Flies, Grimm Tales, The Crucible (SRT TYC), The Tale of the Frog Prince, The Cat in the Hat, Upstairs in the Sky, The Ugly Duckling, Gretel and Hansel (SRT TLC), Hello Adam, The Magic Jungle, Bunny Finds The Right Stuff, Fatimah and her Magic Socks, Us (Esplanade PlayTime), Vassa (LASALLE BA Acting Graduation 2021).

 

SRT Acting credits include: Julius Caesar, Hand to God, Disgraced, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Blackbird, The Pillowman, Defending the Caveman.

Daniel has won the Best Supporting Actor Award twice for his roles in Quills (luna-id), and Cabaret (Toy Factory).

Petrina Dawn Tan Set Designer

Petrina holds an MA in Collaborative Theatre Production & Design from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.

She won Best Set for The Truth (SRT) at the 2020 Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. In 2017, her work on Manifesto (The Necessary Stage & Drama Box) was nominated for Best Lighting. Her design for Recalling Mother (Checkpoint Theatre) has been seen in Singapore, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Other designs: Tuesdays with Morrie (SRT), The Son (Pangdemonium!), A Dream Under The Southern Bough: Existence 《南柯一梦》之辱梦 (Toy Factory Productions).

She has also been Associate Lighting Designer on installations such as From Singapore to Singaporean - The Bicentennial and Art of the Brick (ArtScience Museum).

Tan Jia Hui Costume Designer

Jia Hui graduated with a Diploma in Arts and Theatre Management, since then she has been given many opportunities to work with overseas and local costume designers.

Her costume designing works include The Rattle King (An Esplanade Commission), The Sound Inside (SRT), Rubbish Prince (3Pumpkins); Child’s Play – The Story of the Banyan Tree (Danny Yeo and 3 Pumpkins - An Esplanade Commission); Little Woods (CLS International); Random Access Memory, Here and Beyond, Innamorati 2 (Toy Factory); Lanang, Cari Makan (Hatch Theatrics).

Jia Hui was also the Costume Coordinator for many The Little Company and Mainstage shows such as The Lifespan of a Fact, Fly High, Fantastic Mr Fox (Mandarin).

Genevieve Peck Lighting Designer

Genevieve graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London in 2012 with a BA(Hons) in Theatre Practice, specialising in Lighting and Projection/Video Design.

Design credits include Tango, The Effect (Pangdemonium), Four Horse Road, I Came at Last to The Seas, Lao Jiu 2017, Liao Zhai Rocks 2016, If There’re Seasons 2014 (The Theatre Practice), Lear is Dead, Art Studio (Nine Years Theatre), Both Sides Now 2019, Missing, The Silly Little Girl and The Funny Old Tree (Drama Box), Prism (Toy Factory), A $ingapore Carol (Wild Rice), The Sound Inside and The Lifespan of a Fact (Singapore Repertory Theatre).

Guo Ningru Sound Designer

Ning is a 2016 recipient of the National Arts Scholarship (NAC) and graduated from the University of California Irvine’s MFA programme in Sound Design. Her Masters Thesis, Going Immersive - Spatial Audio for Theatre, details the current technologies and methods in Spatial Audio for sound designers to utilize in theatrical performances.

Her recent works include composition for The Importance of Being Earnest (UCI), and sound design for The Gingerbread Man (SRT’s The Little Company), The Pajama Game (UCI), Mrs Packard (UCI) and The Effect (Pangdemonium).

Ning is committed to educating the younger generation of Singaporean sound designers and developing the appreciation for sound design in the local community.

Lungs received its first performance at the Studio Theatre, Washington D.C. USA on 28th September 2011, directed by Aaron Posner in a rolling world Premiere with Paines Plough/Sheffield Crucible.

 

 

 

Founded in 1993, Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) is one of the leading English-language theatres in Asia. SRT’s mission is to enrich, engage and entertain audiences by staging theatrical productions of the highest calibre, collaborating with the best talent in the world.

The Little Company is a professional theatre company producing quality plays for children. The plays are staged for children aged 3 and up. 

The Young Company is a two-year actor training programme for 16 to 25 year-olds. Up to twenty young people are selected from open auditions to form the core of the company and receive practical theatre training. The Inclusive Young Company was formed for 16 - 35 year olds who identify as persons with disabilities.

SRT’s Learning & Engagement Programme is committed to bringing meaningful and relevant programmes to students, teachers and emerging theatre talents.   

Located along the Singapore River at Robertson Quay, this state-of-the-art 380-seat theatre is a hub for the performing arts.

 

SRT’s values are based on our passion for telling great stories and telling them well, to build a more caring and engaged society.

Passionate: We are passionate about what we do and we put the arts at the centre of everything. We strive to deliver artistic excellence.

Professional: We strive to live up to the highest level of professionalism in everything we do. We are trustworthy, reliable, accountable and honest and we want to keep improving the value we bring to our stakeholders year on year.

Entrepreneurial: We have the drive and the courage to lead. We are curious and we are ambitious in our goal to build communities and reach more and more people through theatre and theatre-based learning – and we dare go new ways in doing so.

Caring: We truly believe we make lives better through our work. We care about the stories we tell, the people we tell them to and the people we work with. Inclusivity and sustainability are central to us.

 

 

BOARD & MANAGEMENT

Chair: Joy Tan

Board of Directors: Peter A. Allen, Aw Kah Peng, E-Len Fu, Olga Iserlis, Gaurav Kripalani, Kuok Lay Hoon, Trina Liang-Lin, Jin Lu , Manraj Sekhon, Richard Tan

Board of Advisors: Jennie Chua, Melissa Kwee, Tateo Nakajima, Philip Ng, Robin Tomlin

Managing Director: Charlotte Nors

ARTISTIC

Deputy Artistic Director: Juliet Chia

Associate Artistic Directors: Daniel Jenkins, Dick Lee

Associate Artist : Kate Golledge

ADMINISTRATION 

Admin Manager: Deborah Foo-Ong

Finance Manager: Rosalind Lim 

Administrator: Cindy Goh 

PRODUCTION

Head of Production & Technical: Evelyn Chia

Production Managers: Charlene Poh, Frankie Fang

MARKETING

Marketing Manager: Margaret Leong

Digital & Social Strategist: Zach Ng 

Marketing Executive: Nerissa Xue

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & SALES 

Partnerships & Development Manager: Emmanuel Paul Ng 

Business Development Assistant Manager: Carolyn Ng

LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT

Learning & Engagement Manager: Paul Adams

Learning & Engagement Assistant Manager: Kimberly Arriola

Learning & Engagement Coordinator: Rebecca Goh

VENUE

Venue Manager: Nurarina Awang

Senior Stage Technician: Peter Chi

Stage Technicians: Derrick Wong, Noor Hidayat Bin Norzizan

RESIDENCY PROGRAMME

Arts Management: Ashley Song

Directing: Terrance Tan

Learning & Engagement: Jelaine Ng

 

 

Apologies to new Friends whose names may have inadvertently been omitted at the point of publication.

 

 

 

SRT would like to thank the following organisations for their generous support

 

Corporate Partners

Official Printer

Access Development Partner

Legal Advisor

Official IT Provider

LIGHTSPEED TECHNOLOGIES PTE LTD

 

Film Production Partner

TRUE COLOUR MEDIA

 

SRT is a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Major Grant for the period of 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2023.

 

 

 

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