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Straits Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
‘My appetite for despair is gigantic': Ellison Tan on directorial debut Scenes From The Climate Era
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Australian playwright David Finnigan's vignette-driven Scenes From The Climate Era is pitched as a dark comedy, but reading the script, Singapore actor Ellison Tan did not laugh once. The 35-year-old confesses a niche sense of humour – 'Very few things make me laugh' – but Tan, with a matter-of-factness about her, also has no qualms stating that she found some of the scenes unrelatable. She says before rehearsals at the Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay: 'I felt quite distant and couldn't relate. Some of them are geographically really far from where we are now, so I felt like I wanted it to reflect a more regional warmth.' The former co-artistic director of puppetry company The Finger Players is making her directorial debut from July 18 to 20, as part of the Esplanade's Studios season centred on the theme of Land. After receiving a phone call from an Esplanade programmer, who asked if she would take on Finnigan's work, she began a process of negotiation with the playwright to re-order scenes and insert new ones – a correspondence that astonishingly took place mostly over email. A frog scene has been retained – featured prominently on the banner art – as well as debates over the ethics of child rearing, and the impudent statement that 'No one's ever built a wall in the ocean to trap a glacier before'. Otherwise, Tan has orders to stay tight-lipped about her and Finnigan's new inventions. She reveals only that one of them is based on her experience of a focus group discussion in the United States, now re-contextualised to Singapore. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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The result is about 20 scenes over a run time of 70 minutes – this cap on the play's length was one of Finnigan's few stipulations. 'If we talk about this for too long a time, we are really overstaying our welcome. When you drone on about it, it feels like we are moralising – and we don't have the right to do that,' Tan says. Tan, who spoke in Malay in Teater Ekamatra's recent Artificial Intelligence play National Memory, has an ear for how one's mother tongue might break down the artifice of theatre. Though Scenes From The Climate Era is performed entirely in English, she still made it a point to incorporate elements of multilinguality in her rehearsals. A snapshot of how she runs the room – 'always communicative, open and most importantly, kind' – is instructive. 'There was one scene about banks where I got the cast to do it in different permutations, and each time, they would go at it with a new prompt. 'Say it in your mother tongue' or 'Say it as though you are teaching it to school children' to get at the heart of it,' she says. The approach stems from a strong commitment to representation, which Tan repeats several times is crucial to her practice. The multi-ethnic eight-member cast allows for portrayals of how the climate crisis affects those of different races and genders. One of the actors, Claire Teo, who is visually impaired, has also worked to ensure all contextual clues for the scene changes are embedded in the dialogue and soundscapes, part of the reason that keeping the play under 70 minutes was initially a 'tall order'. Tan says of what she has come to realise is a guiding principle: 'It's really important for me that people in the room are representative of what this country looks like, so I wanted to make that happen on my own terms.' In all this, Finnigan was a relatively detached figure, checking in only with the rare phone call when he needed more information. Tan persuaded him to do a self-introduction and answer some questions via a Zoom call, which she recorded and played for the cast while workshopping the play. Their response, among no doubt more serious takeaways: 'They said he was handsome.' Tan, who chooses her words meticulously, speaks more easily about the concerted effort the team has made to reduce waste in their staging. The entire set was repurposed and props were excavated from the Esplanade's basement 'cage', where items from previous plays are stored. She is most enthusiastic about the set's central piece – a giant table on which all eight actors will have to stand. 'It was built for the Singtel Waterfront Theatre opening and we found it on top of a cargo lift, unloved and abandoned. We had to fork lift the whole table down,' she says. 'We assigned people according to the weights of the actors to test if it would hold, and it was such a huge affair that so many staging guys came down because it was just so fun to jump on it.' But do not ask her if the play holds within it hope for those pessimistic about climate inaction. Her paradoxical logic holds clues to her stoicism. She believes herself climate conscious in her daily life and watches everything by David Attenborough. Yet she says: 'I have an appetite for despair so gigantic that it doesn't really affect me.' Book It/Scenes From The Climate Era Where: Esplanade Theatre Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive When: July 18 and 19, 8pm; July 20, 3pm Admission: From $32 Info:
Straits Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Sifa 2025 Week One: What audiences say
The Sea And Its Neighbourhood, Bedok Town Square, May 16, 7.30pm Deborah Gan, 44, teacher: 'What I really enjoyed was the collaboration between the different artists. Between the musicians of different backgrounds, there were jazz singers, classical singers and traditional folk instrumentalists, coupled with an orchestra. This performance was very special as we seldom see so many people collaborating within one performance.' Jacqueline Sassoon, 47, translator: 'I enjoyed the different aspects of the show coming together with the intermittent smells of chicken satay and Hokkien mee wafting over from the hawker centre. It was very refreshing to watch.' Tan Hui Xin, 22, student: 'I've watched performances before, but this is the first time I saw something as grand as this in the heartland. I would think that something like this would be in the Esplanade or a more grand venue. Seeing this performance right here, where we live, is hear tening.' More on this Topic Dance review: Singapore Ballet's athletic Pact Of Water brings dancers close to heartland audience Animal Farm, The Finger Players, May 16, 4pm Chloe Lamasan, 15, student: 'The sounds caught me by surprise. They were perfect. It felt like actual animals, despite being made by the human actors.' More on this Topic Theatre review: Astonishing puppets, flat storytelling in The Finger Players' take on Animal Farm Told By My Mother, Victoria Theatre, May 17, 4pm Siying Lee, 25, tourist: 'I cried a lot during the show. I didn't understand 100 per cent of it , and I also didn't do background research. But I think just being open-minded for the show allowed it to communicate with me in a really abstract way. I related to the performance. It is told from a mother's perspective about the unfairness happening, and it is really to what is happening in reality.' Jessica Lim, 17, student: 'I really liked the intense eye contact the dancers had with one another and with the audience, and also the fact that all the sounds were made live. It felt very powerful. I will recommend this show to others, and I feel like the main point was to spread awareness about the mother looking for her missing son.' Voon Keyang, 38, architect: 'I enjoyed the simplicity of the show, that everything is through very close relationships . It started off with silence, then suddenly, the music comes up, where that one particular performer started to tell the whole story. From there, it laid the whole pace. Although I have never been to Lebanon, I think it is very touching. I can feel the sadness and some point of relief when they dance and sing.' Irfan Kasban, 37, performing arts professional: 'I liked how the show is economical yet very effective and impactful. It was a very simple story, yet it didn't need bells and whistles to be effective in garnering a response from me .' More on this Topic Dance review: Ali Chahrour's Told By My Mother a compelling tale of family loss and grief Umbilical, Sota Studio Theatre, May 17, 8pm Phan Yi En, 15, student: 'The whole experience was very immersive because, at certain points, performers would walk into the crowd. I didn't expect that. When they came to stand at the same level as us, we were better able to judge what they were doing , and the intentions behind that.' Francesca Lim Meng Feng, 15, student: 'The first Sifa performance I attended was Animal Farm, and this is my second. In Umbilical, the sound effects were very mesmerising as they mirrored the changes that were seen throughout the performance, and what the performers were doing onstage.' Ryan Lee, 28, designer: 'I really liked the set design and thought it contributed greatly to the atmosphere onstage. Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod and thesupersystem are living legends, and that's why I came to watch this performance. It was very interesting to try and unpack the piece and what was going on, and it was something deeply cynical for sure.' More on this Topic Theatre review: Pain is what binds all species in dark, butoh-inspired Umbilical Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
