சீன லட்சுமி

Four outspoken short plays penned by controversial Singapore writer Elangovan, whose satire and black humor is likely to leave the audience shaken but perhaps ready for some rethinking about today’s lifestyles.

MINES is a play by provocative Singaporean playwright Elangovan. It is set amidst a fictitious war between Malaysia and Singapore and touches on racism, patriotism and the differences between both sides. This thought-provoking play, which was given a last-minute go-ahead for staging by the authorities, challenges the notion of peace and harmony in the Singaporean urban life. Elangovan, considered a pioneer in Tamil poetry and experimental Tamil theatre in Singapore, has had his plays staged worldwide and won the Southeast Asia (SEA) Write Award in 1997 for his contribution to literature and theatre in Singapore. With support from the Lee Foundation for publication.

This controversial one-woman play was first presented in Singapore on 24 December 1998, and twice in February 1999, performed by the depicted character herself. An unforgettable interpretation of one woman’s experience of domestic violence, desolation and divorce has shocked some in the Singapore literary and Indian Muslim circles. The president of the theatre group, Agni Kootthu (Theatre of Fire) was arrested for her persistent attempt to perform the play in English and Malay in October 2000. The play was banned in Oct 2000. Bilingual in English and Tamil. With support from the National Arts Council Publishing and Translation Grant.

BOSE ( + Transportation) exposes the impregnable mystery of the death of the forgotten hero Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, and explores the numerous conspiracy theories. Bose, the most fascinating personality from history in Asia, led the Indian National Army from Singapore in its armed struggle against the British imperial forces of India for independence. TRANSPORTATION captures the displacement and suffering, cultural denigration and crisis of identity that ensues from all forms of estrangement in the colonial period in the penal settlements. It reconstructs the experiences of native criminals and political prisoners transported overseas to the penal settlements established by the British, from the late eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, in Southeast Asia (Singapore and Malaya), the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Islands. The plays were staged by Agni Kootthu (Theatre of Fire) with support from National Arts Council, Arts Fund and Lee Foundation. I. BOSE is published with the support of National Arts Council’s Publication and Translation Grant scheme.