Escape To Batam
Two of Singapore theatre’s most formidable multi-hyphenates craft a lyrical spectacle of the past and present, speaking to all who have known the harsh bitterness and gentle longing of awaiting a new normal.
What do stories of war tell us about human resilience and how we care for those closest to us? How does telling these stories help us to comfort and to heal?
Created by Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman, Escape to Batam is a delicate tapestry of the past and the present, weaving the remarkable lived experiences of Ming, who spent his boyhood on the rural island of Batam to escape the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, with his daughter’s personal stories of family, loss and grief felt in the years since her father’s passing. Drawing parallels from their different life journeys, daughter Claire finds herself discovering what it means to live with the pain of loving those who have left us, and how to carry on for those who are still with us.
Director-Playwright Claire leads a phenomenal ensemble cast of Adib Kosnan, Chaney Chia, Genevieve Tan, Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, and Neo Swee Lin. Poignant and humorous by turns, Escape to Batam draws deeply on Claire and Huzir’s mastery of the written word and the theatrical medium to create a powerful new play that transcends generations.
A programme of 60 Connections – At Home and Afar, a year-long season of Singapore stories and international collaborations in celebration of SG60.
Access
All performances for Escape to Batam have creative captioning and an assisted listening system is available for hearing aid users with a Telecoil-enabled programme. Please arrive at the venue 30 min before the performance.. Singapore Sign Language interpretation will be available for the Fri 22 Aug, 8pm performance. For the best view of captions and Singapore Sign Language interpretation, please book the following seats:
AE 7–23, AF 3–22, AG 1–23, AH 1–24, BA 1–26, BB 1–26, BC 1–26, BD 1–5, BE 1–4.
The Singtel Waterfront Theatre is wheelchair-accessible with various services available to support patrons with access needs. For assistance, please contact Esplanade Customer Experience at 6828 8377 or submit your enquiry here. Concessions are available for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and one accompanying companion.
Creative Team
- Co-playwright
Huzir Sulaiman
Claire Wong- Director
Claire Wong
- Co-dramaturg
Huzir Sulaiman
Faith Ng- Cast
Adib Kosnan
Chaney Chia
Genevieve Tan
Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai
Neo Swee Lin- Set Designer
Petrina Dawn Tan
- Lighting Designer
Faith Liu Yong Huay
- Sound Designer
Shah Tahir
- Historical Music Consultant
Phan Ming Yen
- Costume Designer
Max Tan
- Multimedia Designer
Tan Wei Ting
- Make-Up Designer
Bobbie Ng
- Hair Designer
Leong
- Production Manager
Evelyn Chia
- Technical Manager
Paul Lim
- Stage Manager
Saffa' Afiqah
- Assistant Stage Manager
Wann Nurul Asyiqin
- Wardrobe Manager
Lim Zhiying
- Crew
Lilith Tan
- Dresser
Nurynne Aliesya
Reviews
- Press
Co-written by husband-and-wife duo Huzir Sulaiman and Claire Wong, who also directs the play, ESCAPE TO BATAM is a conversation between father and daughter... Common to both the war and pandemic is the fact that borders have become more inflexible and any crossing is fraught with danger and the impossibility of a simple return. In breaching the border between life and death, the play attempts one more border crossing that might help tether seemingly unrelated moments of grief and loss. The result is a moving conversation across generations and the borders of life.
Ming’s perspective is drawn partly from a sheaf of handwritten memoiristic letters he had written to his daughter in the 1990s, and his lively anecdotes make for one of the more textured dramatic depictions of the Japanese Occupation.
Whether he is describing the technique of felling a row of trees in one swoop or recounting how a Japanese soldier had attended meticulously to his fever, his stories shine with particularity and rescue history from a textbook recitation.
Traumatic as leaving Singapore on a sampan was, Ming dwells on the comic moments too... acknowledging that the experience of war can sometimes feel absurd... Claire returns the favour with some lighter pandemic absurdities...
Set designer Petrina Dawn Tan has created a fluid and abstract set that lives up to the scale of the Singtel Waterfront Theatre. Translucent fabrics and ropes flow from the ceiling in various configurations, allowing the actors to interact with the material in symbolic ways – holding on, letting go, pulling ahead, pushing back.
There is a richness in the sound design, engineering and arrangement by Shah Tahir, together with historical music consultation by Phan Ming Yen... The contemporary electropop beats also have a sense of regret – the music that was never danced to communally, a reminder of live performance’s lost years.
ESCAPE TO BATAM tells the story of two traumas with all the fuzzy memories, circling back and revision of an ongoing conversation.
Some histories can be reactivated and retrieved meaningfully only in certain seasons of one’s life, and this duet between the past and the present feels like one of them. Both historical moments and their grief find themselves conjugated in surprising ways.
THE STRAITS TIMES, SG