Live Fringe

Forked Jo Tan (Singapore) 25—27 January 2018, 8pm
27 January 2018,3pm
NAFA Studio Theatre
90 mins with no intermission
Fringe Commission ● World Premiere
Advisory 16Some Mature Content and Coarse Language
Forked Jo Tan (Singapore) 25—27 January 2018, 8pm
27 January 2018,3pm
NAFA Studio Theatre
90 mins with no intermission
Fringe Commission ● World Premiere
Advisory 16Some Mature Content and Coarse Language
$27|$19*

*Concessions for students, NSFs, senior citizens and PWD card holders

Jo Tan is a theatre actor and writer who decided to combine her dubious talents in writing for theatre. While she has written comedy scripts and children’s theatre scripts, Forked is her first full-length play for adults.
Jeanette Peh—a highly-westernised Singaporean JC valedictorian—decides to abandon law school to follow her dreams of studying acting in London, where she will also hopefully find her occidental soulmates.

On arrival however, she is dismayed to find that her teacher and classmates label as one of the "Asian students". She adopts a British accent and well-meaningly corrects the British students’ grammar, but that doesn't make her popular for some reason. At least she’s doing well in school... until she gets to Baptiste Laroche's class

Monsieur Laroche wants her to perform more honestly by speaking in her native language. There’s just one problem: Jeanette is beginning to realise she doesn’t know what her native language is. In fact, she doesn’t really know who she is at all.

Forked is Jo Tan’s first full-length play, featuring performers Ethel Yap, Jamil Schulze, Joanna Pilgrim and Chang Ting Wei.

Forked was conceptualised and begun in a playwriting masterclass by Huzir Sulaiman in 2016 and selected for further development under Saga Seed Theatre’s inaugural Seed Incubator Programme. It continues to be developed under Watch This Space—The Finger Players’ script mentorship platform.

Venue support by Nanyang Academy of Fine Art.

Presented with support from Cultural Matching Fund, Young Changemakers and the National Youth Council.

Amanda Heng’s Let’s Walk seems to be about the masks that women are expected to put on, and the images we are expected to project. Forked is specifically about a Singaporean female problem, where we oscillate between wearing masks of Western worldliness and Asian sweetness (which is often what gains the most highly coveted Western Male approval), and then juggle that with projecting an image of individuality—except we subscribe to a very off-the-shelf brand of hipster, dream-chasing individuality which is not so individual at all. Seen through the eyes of a young girl who travels to find herself, Forked is an invitation to walk away somewhere where we can discover who we are without our masks, or at least choose our masks with greater self-awareness.

Click here to find the route to NAFA.

Jeanette Peh—a highly-westernised Singaporean JC valedictorian—decides to abandon law school to follow her dreams of studying acting in London, where she will also hopefully find her occidental soulmates.

On arrival however, she is dismayed to find that her teacher and classmates label as one of the "Asian students". She adopts a British accent and well-meaningly corrects the British students’ grammar, but that doesn't make her popular for some reason. At least she’s doing well in school... until she gets to Baptiste Laroche's class.

Monsieur Laroche wants her to perform more honestly by speaking in her native language. There’s just one problem: Jeanette is beginning to realise she doesn’t know what her native language is. In fact, she doesn’t really know who she is at all.

Forked is Jo Tan’s first full-length play, featuring performers Ethel Yap, Jamil Schulze, Joanna Pilgrim and Chang Ting Wei.

Forked was conceptualised and begun in a playwriting masterclass by Huzir Sulaiman in 2016 and selected for further development under Saga Seed Theatre’s inaugural Seed Incubator Programme. It continues to be developed under Watch This Space—The Finger Players’ script mentorship platform.

Venue support by Nanyang Academy of Fine Art.

Presented with support from Cultural Matching Fund, Young Changemakers and the National Youth Council.

RELATION TO THEME

Amanda Heng’s Let’s Walk seems to be about the masks that women are expected to put on, and the images we are expected to project. Forked is specifically about a Singaporean female problem, where we oscillate between wearing masks of Western worldliness and Asian sweetness (which is often what gains the most highly coveted Western Male approval), and then juggle that with projecting an image of individuality—except we subscribe to a very off-the-shelf brand of hipster, dream-chasing individuality which is not so individual at all. Seen through the eyes of a young girl who travels to find herself, Forked is an invitation to walk away somewhere where we can discover who we are without our masks, or at least choose our masks with greater self-awareness.

$27 | $19*

*Concessions for students, NSFs, senior citizens and PWD card holders

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Jo Tan is a theatre actor and writer who decided to combine her dubious talents in writing for theatre. While she has written comedy scripts and children’s theatre scripts, Forked is her first full-length play for adults.

Getting Here

Click here to find the route to NAFA.