Playing With Fire
With climate catastrophe on the horizon, why would anyone want to work in oil and gas?
Having secured interviews with several employees of the petrochemical industry, this is the question a determined young writer expects to answer. Instead, Sue Rozario finds herself uncovering a troubling web of connections between the oil and gas industry, Singapore’s modern development, and her own family history. As she delves deeper into her research, she is forced to confront layers of hidden truths – not only of her interviewees’ personal and professional lives, but also of her own.
Playing With Fire shares a profoundly human look into Singapore’s industrial past and present, while placing the complexities of a just energy transition under a microscope.
Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips’ sharp, sophisticated writing shines in this new play that interrogates the relationships between people and industry with empathy and nuance. Claire Wong’s skilful direction anchors an exceptional cast, comprising Rebecca Ashley Dass, Cheryl Lee, Gosteloa Spancer, Nora Samosir, and Rafaat Haji Hamzah, who bring the complexities and tensions of this thrilling work to life.
Timely and compelling, Playing With Fire examines how we have become implicated in the climate crisis, and asks what it would take to break out of it.
Creative Team
- Playwright
Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips
- Director
Claire Wong
- Dramaturg
Huzir Sulaiman
- Cast
Rebecca Ashley Dass
Cheryl Lee
Gosteloa Spancer
Nora Samosir
Rafaat Haji Hamzah- Set Designer
Johanna Pan
- Lighting Designer
Faith Liu Yong Huay
- Sound Designer
Danial Ahmad
- Costume Coordinator
Sheryl Teo
- Producers
Huzir Sulaiman
Claire Wong- Production Manager
Lam Dan Fong
- Stage Manager
Georgia Sim
- Assistant Stage Manager
Sheryl Teo
Reviews
- Press
The debut play by Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips explores an alternate perspective on environmentalism through a fictionalised account of her own attempts to understand why people still join pollutive industries, such as oil refining.
Phillips balances the script enough to avoid having it come across as a lecture on why pollutive industries are harmful.
A vulnerable willingness to show the other side of the conversations makes for a thought provoking play… Strikingly simple but effective.
The Straits Times
Playing With Fire opens true to its premise — that it’s a tug-of-war between the practical commercial reality of the oil and gas industry vs the green energy activism that places the environment first… But what the play does is to give a human face to the individuals in the petrochemical industry. As it succinctly reminds us, it’s fundamentally about people. People who mean well, people who have the interests of other people at heart.
Rafaat delivers an emotional performance across the entire spectrum of shame, guilt, pride, fear. His riveting delivery underscores the theme of the play... And when you come away from the show, it’s his hopes, his dreams, his struggles that exemplify the key conflict of Playing With Fire.
I was delighted to find that there was an unfolding plot that […] the main character Sue (Rebecca Ashley Dass) has personal ties with almost all of the characters… This isn’t just about environmental activism for her — it’s a personal journey.
Playing With Fire delivers on its premise and beyond. It’s not so much a balanced perspective, as it is a human perspective… Yes, there’s an environmental message there — and it also exhorts viewers to consider the lives and humanity of those in such a reviled industry. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, one thing remains true — that it’s about people.
Marcus Goh
Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips is most certainly a voice to watch… There is maturity, depth and humour in her writing that shines through... Playing With Fire deals with an important topic that concerns us all and I certainly hope this will not be the last we hear of this on the stage.
Crystalwords