Cooling Off Day is a story about Singapore. When people wrote about Singapore’s history in the past, it was often from a singular perspective. An example of this would be class textbooks, which are strictly based on one viewpoint. I wanted to examine the idea of counter-narratives sending a message, which has never really been legitimized so far.
I have often wanted to write a story about something really simple, like a love story between two people who meet in Eastpoint. But I always end up zooming right into the details, and some things just happen in Singapore that make me feel like I can’t turn my back on them… it always ends up being relevant.
I like to imagine Singapore as a kid from a military family, one that moves around a lot in a kind of nomadic way, and never gets the chance to properly settle in to a town or school before it has to uproot again.
Sometimes I think we’re being naïve by assuming a nation state is an idea still worth pursuing.
I feel as though we have a sort of post-colonial cultural void, where we’re lacking a sense of pride or identity.
Before the elections a lot of people had been bottling in their personal opinions.
Once the elections were over, many ordinary people were desperate to get the initial emotion off their chest and have their moment of political expression.
Your uncles and aunties in kopitiams don’t keep blogs. But just because someone doesn’t use the prerequisite political vocabulary doesn’t mean their opinion isn’t valid.
It’s difficult to really belong to a community in Singapore, because there’s so much rapid change that no one has any time to stop and breathe.
You become familiar with a neighborhood, then suddenly half the buildings have been knocked down and there’s a new mall. It’s like the development is being forced too fast, and the idea of locality becomes meaningless.
Politics is all about entertainment. And entertainment is all about politics. Politics is all about performance; you have this whole political theater where how you perform dictates how you carve your name into history.
I have responsibilities as a playwright. One thing I feel very strongly about is that I am able to bring controversy to the table.
It’s necessary for me to raise issues that journalists and the media are not covering, if they’re not serving us adequately over political issues.
People need the opportunity to hear what others are saying. You should expect your political views to be challenged, not always confirmed. My play may be about politics, but it isn’t a prescriptive kind of play; you will be bearing witness to a whole spectrum of views. Like living in a democracy!
Cooling Off Day is on from Aug 10-14.
The Man Singapore Theatre Festival runs from Aug 3-21.
