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Original Singapore Stories with Honesty and Humour, Head and Heart

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Session Zero

Following a completely sold-out run in 2021, Checkpoint Theatre is proud to bring back Session Zero with its original cast and creative team.

As an estranged couple attempts to reconnect over a game of Dungeons & Dragons, the conflicts of daily life are inevitably carried onto the battlefield. Given the mess created by the years of history together, can fantasy storytelling help them rediscover the connection they need?

With masterful strokes, playwright Jo Tan paints a nuanced portrait of the gulf between two that devours what is left unsaid and renders the familiar, strange. With the syllables of the forgotten language that they once shared now echoing through their lives, they must rediscover the words that brought them together in the first place.

Directed and with dramaturgy by Huzir Sulaiman, this intimate two-hander delicately examines matters of the heart, in a bid to heal together. Featuring Jo Tan and Brendon Fernandez, Session Zero bravely navigates and illuminates the complexities that run through the deepest human relationships.

 

Session Zero first premiered at 42 Waterloo Street and ran from 02 — 19 December 2021.

Read audience feedback and media reviews here!


Creative Team

Playwright

Jo Tan

Director-Dramaturg

Huzir Sulaiman

Cast

Jo Tan
Brendon Fernandez

Set & Lighting Designer

Petrina Dawn Tan

Sound Designer

Shah Tahir

Assistant Directors

Lim Shien Hian
Natalie Wong

Producer

Claire Wong
Huzir Sulaiman

Production Stage Manager

Izz Sumono

Assistant Stage Managers

Clarissa Liaw
Heather Chen


Reviews

  • Press

[Jo] Tan’s complex, nuanced script switches between this tense, combative game and episodes from the couple’s past. [...]

In moments where the duo’s energies match, shades of unresolved conflict come to a potent head — built on the seemingly insurmountable differences between [Brendon Fernandez's] broody artistic character and [Jo Tan's] anxious contract lawyer.

[Checkpoint Theatre Joint Artistic Director] Huzir Sulaiman’s direction and dramaturgy keep the play brisk and intriguing, transitioning between states of fantasy and reality without so much as an exposed seam to take the audience into a similar world of immersive game and power play.

SESSION ZERO is a couple’s heart-rending exercise in letting go of the predetermined stories they have come to accept of themselves in favour of, however difficult it may be, inventing their own.

The Straits Times, SG

As always, Checkpoint [Theatre] makes theater in a slick, thoughtful fashion. SESSION ZERO is quick-witted, intuitive, and worldly-wise. [...]

The words are emphasized and drawn out by the actors. Words that were previously throwaway or left out turn out to be complex nexus of pain for the characters. Playwright Jo Tan lets the audience put it all together and leaves them, confident, that they’ll see how things fall together. One gets the sense that they are observing two people at their rawest and most vulnerable. We sit and breathe, wondering how we were even to play along. Except the characters too don’t know how to play along. The game of fantasy only goes so far. In the end, they play a different game, one that only the theater allows.

Critics Circle BR, SG

I appreciated the symmetry of Tan's text and how the act of storytelling is equally divided between the characters, reaching a tender symbiosis towards the end. [...]

Huzir coaxes engaging, empathetic performances from the pair, smoothly balancing the laugh-out-loud humour with moments that quietly lacerate. Tan, ever the malleable performer, slips effortlessly between her many characters. She is ably matched by Fernandez's Smokey who entertains the crowd with a variety of accents and acts as a smooth, eloquent counterpoint to Speedy's nervous prattling. Like many other Checkpoint [Theatre] productions, the design is simple but thoughtful, a plain white tabletop and two chairs being the only notable props alongside a multitude of coloured lights that mark the scene transitions.

SESSION ZERO is a play that cleverly likens relationships to a game of D&D. We each take on our roles and there's always an element of chance. We may not always figure out the rules, but if we give it our all, maybe, just maybe, we will emerge triumphant

Crystalwords, SG

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Date
19 – 29 Oct 2023
Venue
Drama Centre Black Box, Singapore
Info

Advisory 16 (Some Mature Content)

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