~by: Jewel Philemon~
Local playwright, Mr Tan Tarn How, returns to the world of theatre after a hiatus of ten years with his latest full-length play, ‘Fear of Writing’.
The respected writer, who has written several critically acclaimed plays such as ‘The First Emperor’s Last Days’, ‘The Lady of Soul And Her Ultimate “S” Machine’ and ‘Home’, said that he wanted to write a play about the difficulty of writing political plays and thus, Fear of Writing was born.
“This play is about the complacency of the average Singaporean, of theatre audiences and practitioners because there is no danger, no real change enacted by our works. It is about the commercialization of theatre; hijacked as entertainment rather than being an engine of change. Can we find a real political theatre, where the audience goes in X and comes out Y? This is the difficulty in writing this kind of work in this day and age, hence the long gap between my last play and this one.” says Mr Tan.
Mr Tan’s career of writing plays began in 1989, when he wrote a short play titled ‘In Praise of the Dentist’. He has since written 9 plays over the span of twenty-two years.
He was also the head writer of popular local period drama, ‘Growing Up’, as well as ‘VR Man’, an action hero series. Mr Tan also worked for the Straits Times from 1987-1996 and 1999-2005 as Science and Technology editor, Sunday Review editor, Life! Deputy Editor, senior political correspondent and also a foreign correspondent based in Beijing and Hong Kong.
Mr Tan is currently working as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies.
On his motivations to writing this particular play, Mr Tan says, “Artists are supposed to hold a mirror to society. What if the society is not looking into the mirror in the way that the artist hopes they would? And what if they only see it as a diversion, an entertainment, a commodity? Then what is the point of the art?” Because there is no conversation! An artist is supposed to have a conversation, not with themselves, but with society. Where is the problem – well, firstly, is there a problem at all?”
“Maybe in our modern day society artists are no longer allowed to have that role. So is there a problem with the art form? Or is the art itself? Its inability to evoke that kind of a response? Is it a problem with the audience or is it a problem with soc? Or is it a problem of modern day existence? In this entertainment drenched society. So I wanted to explore that”, he adds.
Wanting to explore what artists can’t write was another thought which spurred him.
“Even before this election, some people would say actually there are no limits. Whereas my contention is that, there are limits. I don’t mean limits which are in place in sort of liberal or advance societies. Of course you can’t write plays about inciting hatred or inciting violence or things like that. But the limits which are put in place which are special to places like Singapore where limits are somewhat arbitrary. So I mean limits that are here that are not in other well functioning societies elsewhere. So I wanted to attest that there are these limits and I want to attest that there still are these limits despite what happened in the previous general election”, he contends.
So what is ‘Fear of Writing’ all about?
“Well Fear of Writing is about fundamental change, the role of political art, and it is about the fact that we are not able to somehow reflect on things in a way other than a very narrow consumerist, materialistic or pragmatic prism. It is about a lot of things. Ultimately it is a commentary about politics, political art and censorship“, Mr Tan describes.
“I think all my plays are different, they feel different at least to me.” Says Mr Tan when asked how Fear of writing is different from his other plays,
“But I guess this one, is different in the way that it sort of attempts to reflect on theatre as a form and to see whether the old theatre is enough. So it is in that way an experiment. It is in a way unlike all the other plays where they aren’t experiments in form. It is an experiment in the genre of theatre.”
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Fear of writing is staged by Theatreworks. For more details on the performance click HERE.
There are still at least one third of Singaporeans who are Zombies in Lala Land. They see bad as good & vice versa, can be easily led by the nose, be used & abused & they will still say nothing is wrong. You have to let go of this grp of people & work on the rest.
Tyrants and dictators fear writers, journalists, playrights and political opponents. Laws and rules have been passed to ban or to place restrictions on the works of such people with threats of imprisonment or fines. In a small country like Singapore, it is easier for the government to practise thought control. The freedom to write is a priviledge not a right. Many a writer here are consciously aware of that.
Titiana Ann Xavier1 September 2011
Tyrants and dictators fear writers, journalists, playrights and political opponents
………………
and a british ole man named alan shadrake
@ iVOTEahMeng
Yeah, you’re right…
Evidently unconfirmed sources says MDA came in and closed down the show today , even confiscating an audience’s phone camera – an ironic and overreacting response to this article ?
It’s part of the play pls
http://www.facebook.com/theonlinecitizen/posts/10150358252421383
if we cannot as to freely write what we think within acceptable social perimaters,how could we then expect our people,especially our young,to be more creative and entrepreneurial compared to even some folks from ‘THIRD’ WOLRD countries?
even the PRC youths have seemingly more freedom of speech and they can orderly demonstrate for better working conditions?
will our FTs then be the ones to stage the FIRST EVER ISLAND -WDIE protest if we do not stop cooking curries?
The evil that prohibits free speech reaches into the very consciousness, terrorizing one’s thinking and destroying our minds. When freedom of speech is curtailed, any others that remain, will soon be lost as well.
They are intolerant of criticisms. They are lulled into thinking they have always been doing right and best for the country, basking in the accolades and superlatives, the best airport, the best seaport, the best this and that. Is having kept a political detainee for the longest period of time another feather in the cap? Scary! They think and decide in their own narrow and crude domineering ways that if you pose a threat to what they think, then you are done for. If you are a critical netizen writing anonymously, but am sure they know who you are, unattached to any organisation, chances are these days, they will tolerate your noises. But if you are a bit famous and a known person like Catherine Lim, a mild chirpy and lovable lady, even though her comments were innocuous and well meaning, she got it, they will probably rap you hard on the knuckles. If you are an opposition politician like CSJ, and they hate your guts, they will go for the kill on a demolition exercise based on their operating manual and their tentacled agents from every nook and corner will rise and get to work to systemically finish you off. As it is, over the years, they have succeeded to make CSJ looks like a classic idiotic fool. And many were taken in by their gameplan. That is classy cleverness and an achievement where they are concerned. Who dares to write openly voicing critical views and face the risk of being harassed and ridiculed and bullied. In any case who is going to air your views however sensible or legitimate you think it is. You are lucky if you are not hauled up and locked in. Stories of hours or days in a cold windowless cellar had emerged and that is enough to scare the daylights out of anybody. They are the smart ones. The views of the majority lesser mortals or dafts do not really matter. However of late with the changing times, they do acknowledge your concerns though, even apologise. Semblance of the observance of civility and some formality at long last? Then their smart ones take over and they just do it. There is a big cake out there alright, the bigger better portions are for them. The remaining portions are fed to the rest just enough to ensure they do not go hungry and that should keep them quiet. That is the living reality here.
First world country in bank balances and structures and appearances only, but in reality third world mentality with a gutless, dumbed-down and conditioned populace, lacking the spirit and courage, and afraid to speak up in the open. What creativeness and the arts can we encourage or aspire to or talk about. What can we expect of the effects of decades of a systemic “poison” slowly seeping through a cowed, browbeaten and frightened lot who had given up entertaining any thoughts of engagement in any channel or avenue to express or contribute their innermost thoughts because of fear. As a result many rather chose the “safe” route and remain apolitical. Hence there is not much progress in “politics” in Singapore for quite awhile with the ruling clique continuing to believe that they know best and will therefore think and decide for you and would rather that there be no opposition. Fortunately times have changed and there is hope especially with the internet. Many are at least letting their thoughts and pent-up feelings known one way or other. Perhaps this is where the President can be useful and play his part. The President can correct the weaknesses in the system and heal the wounds and the ills, and bridge the divide around him, and remove the fear factor. Ensure that those in charge do not ride roughshod over the people. Ensure those in charge are fair, reasonable and transparent in their dealings, and constantly remind them to be kind-hearted and to lend a listening ear and to help the people if they want to be the best politicians in the world.
If a politician (of any hue) is ethical, principled, knows sense of fairness n justice, whether anyone writes or not – it would not bother him/her.
Of course, it presupposes that one is genuinely serving the nation.
A lie told many times used to be perceived as truth – that is obsolete lah.
Truth suppressed is not a negation – it will surface – it is only a question of cirumstances/situations cos maintaining a fiction needs lots of effort and it cannot be sustained for long. Truth does not need maintenance.
Ai yah! You don’t need a story or play. It is not fear if it is known. It is call self preservation and interest.
And BTW, you don’t need to pay to see the play, it is everywhere in the media.
And depending on how good your maths is 35% and 60% of people think it is ok, so no worries bro, it is normal.
Art exist to sell itself too. Artist are not immune to promoting controversy to sell tickets. In fact, I would say most artist nowadays create art that provoke controversy.
I know that the government is not really stifling simply by the fact that all of us have posted here and how many of us have suffered?
Well i feel that although the government has done fairly well in getting us to where we are today, sometimes they do screw stuff up and need to be told that they’re doing things the wrong way. Plays like these are good ways to subtly show them where they have done wrong, and if MDA wants to stop the show it will only serve as a clear indicator that our ruling party is no better than the ones that are being kicked out of power in the Middle East.
Let’s face it, we’re not as bad as DPRK, Myanmar, PRC or Vietname but we’re not close to Hong Kong, Taiwan, S. Korea, Japan, India and Philippines where it comes to writer’s and dramatic freedom. We’re some where in between. This of course does not matter to those who only care about the best airport, best port, best traffic flow, etc. Matters only to those who don’t like living in a stifling enviroment. But we get use to the haze. We might be get used to anything.
Do rights triumph over policy or policy over rights?