Tongues
Sean Tobin & Jason Wee (Singapore)



DOWNLOAD BIO


16 – 18 February 2012, 8pm
18 & 19 February 2012, 3pm
Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore
$30 | $19


R18: Mature content and Religious references


(Fringe Commission / World Premiere)


Tongues is a confessional and lyrical contemporary performance exploring the contrast, conflict and affinity between faith and sexuality.


The hospital air conditioner is in need of service again. Four bodies awaiting identification and autopsy, wake up at the morgue, in anticipation of the afterlife, if there is one.  They have as much human consciousness as they have warmth. In and out of awareness, the audience amble and hasten with them through their dreams, memories, fears and revelations.


This interdisciplinary interactive piece is a la petite mort of real-life confessions, reflections and imaginations gathered from people holding differing histories, beliefs and gender identities, from ancient to present.


What happens when the air conditioner is finally repaired and the cold temperature is restored?


Featuring Nora Samosir, Faizal Muhammad, Walter Hanna & Serena Ho.


Relationship to Art & Faith


Through this safe and imaginative platform, we hope for an inspired exchange between different faiths and lifestyles, regarding something personal to all of us – our spiritual and sexual identity and expression.


Art, faith and sexuality are all matters of identity, expression, communication and intimacy. They are precious and vital parts of our individual and collective existence and they deserve a generous and respectful space for dialogue, understanding and empowerment.


Matters of faith and sexuality are often so divisive in society that they are either suppressed, swept aside or they lead to great discomfort and conflict. Through the energies of modernisation and globalisation we see faiths and sexualities ever evolving, reforming and reconstructing, but we are often lacking the necessary reflection and dialogue, or the safe environment in which these can be safely carried out.


Through this process and final presentation we hope for greater empathy, sensitivity and understanding between people of different views, appreciating our difference and our sameness. We hope to set minds somewhat at ease over taboos and tensions to do with faith and sexuality, acknowledging that neither ‘faith’ nor ‘sex’ need to be ‘dirty words’.


The content of the performance will be a creative amalgam of material gathered from surveys, interviews, reading materials, focus groups, playback theatre sessions and disclosures from the creative team.


This independent interdisciplinary piece has been devised by a collective of artists and performers gathered under the creative direction of Sean Tobin and Jason Wee.


Publicity photo credits: Jason Wee
Rehearsal photo credits: Sean Tobin