Local playwright Joel Tan’s star has been on the rise since Family Outing, his play dealing with gay-themes debuted at the Singapore Theatre Festival in 2011. Fresh from being part of an all-poet performance at the Singapore Writers Festival his new play The Way We Go is currently showing at SOTA (through Nov 29). We chat with him about school life and the state of local theater.
How did you get started?
I stumbled upon theatre at university when I enrolled in a playwriting class taught by Huzir Sulaiman (Huzir is the Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre where I’m an Associate Artist). Prior to that, I had never even set foot in the theatre. It’s one of those accidental loves, which I think are the best.
What’s the inspiration for your latest play?
The way people speak has always been interesting to me and that was one of the main impulses behind this play. I was inspired by my teachers at Montfort School. They were these real English-educated Catholic types with a wonderful way with words that was almost self-caricaturing. When contrasted with the sound of my generation, which is snappier, slang-ier, easier, I thought it’d be interesting to have all these sounds in one play. Then a story of late-life romance crept in. It was so mad and delirious that it kept writing itself.
The Way We Go focuses on the life of a former principal, what were your own school days like?
Montfort has a pretty bad rep. Either you know that it exists—in which case you think of pai kias and cigarettes—or you don’t know that it exists—in which case you think it’s a run-of-the-mill neighbourhood school with a fancy name. I was this prissy boy in the midst of these macho rocker types. We got along okay but I never really fitted in. The result was I ended up hating a lot of it. However, it is also where I met these amazing, loving, generous teachers and learned to play the trombone, which is a great love of mine.
Who do you admire in the Singapore theater scene?
I really admire a whole bunch of Chinese language practitioners. They’re putting on such powerful work with so much humility and intelligence. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to work with them, though, because my Mandarin is so half-past-six.
If you could meet any character from any play you’ve read or written, who would it be and why?
For coffee and cake, I’d want to meet Violet from The Way We Go because she makes the best cakes.
How do you think the local theatre scene has changed over the years?
I don’t know, I haven’t been part of it that long! Well, I suppose we do see a lot more locally-produced musicals now than we used to, which is interesting.
Lastly, what would you do on your days off?
My job as a freelance magazine writer.
