Sau(dara)

Four women discover that even in their twenties, growing up female and Malay in Singapore means that you’ll never truly be a grown up. To navigate the winds of change, they replay the games they used to play and songs they used to sing. Four friends relive stories of themselves and others like them. Of growing up and growing older, of growing apart and growing (none-the-) wiser, Sau(dara) is a tempestuous retrospective of womanhood. 

A work-in-progress version of this work was first presented under Centre 42’s The Vault programme in 2018.

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Thirty years ago, a remarkable English-language theatre production was staged in Singapore. Three Children, written by Malaysian playwright Leow Puay Tin, is a story about three grown-up siblings who return to their childhood home to confront their past.

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The 1988 production of Three Children by TheatreWorks took many bold steps at a time when professional Singapore theatre was in its infancy. It brought together theatre powerhouses from both sides of the Causeway – Krishen Jit and Ong Keng Sen – who shared directing duties. Together with the cast, they created a boundary-pushing, multicultural work that challenged both local theatre and its audiences.