Vertices Voyeur
by Richard Chua
November 2020, Substation
Directed by Richard Chua
"Vertice Voyeur captured a kind of esoteric slowness, almost a despair of the times - but also an acceptance of mortality...A dominant sense that, no matter what the performers got up to, it was merely one slice of time, one moment of human life in a cosmos far more ancient than our species. This philosophical perspective made these times seem more bearable."
Bernice Lee, FiveLines
Chen Jiexiao
A Mouthful of Birds
inspired by Conference of the Birds
created by Ranice Tay, Eleanor Ee, Theresa Wee-Yenko
July 2020, Online (Zoom)
Directed by Ang Gey Pin
“A very touching performance. It was magical. I see three people trapped in their own spaces. But through the only window they had, they went on a journey together. They managed to share things with one another from their homes. In a time of isolation, we need magic and the ability to fly through our imagination all the more.”
Peilin Liang (Singapore/Taiwan), Cloud Sharing (Work-in-Progress) session of A Mouthful of Birds, 28 May 2020
Ranice Tay, Eleanor Ee, Theresa Wee-Yenko
Wife #11
by Desmond Sim
May 2016, The Arts House
Directed by Desmond Sim
“… it appears that the life of their relationship has been pressed and preserved in the folds of the letters they are sending back and forth. With each exchange, the empty space between Ah Huat and Theresa grows more charged, the two individuals emotionally orbiting each other but never quite meeting long enough to keep pace…As much as the play had asked questions of communication and of self-fashioning through writing, it also dealt with questions of physical spaces of ‘house’ and emotional spaces of ‘home’… it’s a play that tells the Singapore story by just telling one Singapore story.”
Jasvinder Kaur, Teatrex Asia
Amy Cheng, Sonny Lim
Gruesome Playground Injuries
by Rajiv Joseph
February 2013, The Arts House
Directed by Susan Penrice Tyrie
Rajiv Joseph’s play about the relationship between two people from the age of eight to 38 does touch on many interesting and even titillating experiences…However, none of these issues is delved into satisfactorily…One wishes that Joseph had given more depth to the characters…Therein lies the difficulty of acting in and directing a play like Gruesome, which doesn’t give much by way of details, so that it relies on the performance of the artists more than might be the case in other plays.…Fazal was more believable in his role as the wacky and irresponsible Doug than Mukherjee was in hers.
Sharmila Melissa Yogalingam, blogcritics.com
Tania Mukherjee, Musa Fazal
Sleuth
by Anthony Shaffer
November 2012, NAFA Theatre Studio
Directed by Sonny Lim
Sleuth is an exciting piece of theatre, as the story explores the psyches of two men bent on trying to trick the other with rather extreme mind games…Mowatt shone as the leading character… It is most heartening and delightful that small theatre companies such as World-In-Theatre are able to put up such appealing plays as Sleuth, because without the flashiness of celebrities and big sets, good theatre is really about the story, the actors, and the direction. Sleuth scores top marks on all accounts.
Sharmila Melissa Yogalingam, blogcritics.com
Andrew Mowatt, Marc Chia
That Man Called Tartuffe!
from Moliere
May 2012, The Arts House
Directed by Chris Lee
"Tartuffe was a controversial comedy when it was produced in 1664.…In this rendition, World-In-Theatre wanted to look into the “clowning” aspect of this comedy. From tomfoolery, bawdiness, cuckoldry and inside jokes, everything was there…The entire cast was energised and adrenaline-pumped, the scenes unfolding with urgency and the actors pacing the performance very steadily…A successful pairing of classy and quirky, the look of the production is a perfect blend of modern and period. This great sense of production aesthetics, no matter how small the budget, is what I have come to expect from productions by World-In-Theatre."
Aidli Mosbit
Dhrubo Das, Sonny Lim, Jo Tan, Tania Mukherjee
When God is a Customer
Subra V, Priya Arun
Precious Little: Brief Encounters with Beckett
by Samuel Beckett
May 2009, The Arts House
Directed by Shelly Quick
"I loved the intricate and wicked business in which the goad on wheels poked Beckett's characters awake, the music and choreography for Act Without Words I and II, and the weight of Mohan's performance..."
Terence Tan, Theatrex Asia
Directed by Subra V
“Priyalatha Arun gave a virtuosic performance, moving fluidly between the roles of wife, mistress and courtesan.… It was a high quality production presented by a talented cast of international performers that transcended the specifics of language in all its forms.”
Stephanie Burridge, The Flying Inkpot
September 2011, The Arts House
Mohan Sachdev
Mohan Sachdev
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
July 2008, NAFA Theatre Studio
Directed by Shelly Quick. World-in-Theatre & NAFA Theatre Department
Exchanges between the murderous couple are cunningly timed, with meaningful silences within apparently monolithic dialogues, drawing out hitherto unnoticed tensions in the text. These interchanges were frequently the best scenes of the play - I thrilled at the dangerous games of threat and seduction as the Lady convinced her husband to commit the murder, their shared terror in the wake of the act and the turning of the tables in the banquet scene, when Macbeth actually became physically abusive to his wife….
Ng Yi Sheng, The Flying Inkpot
Sonny Lim, Adelynn Tan
Mishima: Women in Love
by Yukio Mishima
July 2007, NAFA Theatre Studio
Directed by Sonny Lim & Richard Chua
World-in-Theatre & NAFA Theatre Department
"The production has a deliberately slow rhythm that seems to attempt to immerse the audience in the tempo of an archaic world where humans move and speak sluggishly, mired by a morass of regret and longing that has grown more potent than their flesh and spirit can bear."
Hong Xinyi, The Straits Times
Sherilyn Tan, Bridget Fernandez, Andrew Mowatt
Bitter Chocolate
April 2005, The Substation
Directed by Kavitha Krishnan & Juraimy Abu Bakar
Apsara Asia & World-in-Theatre
"In Bitter Chocolate, another low-key and intimate production about
ordinary people and their everyday lives, magnetic performances by
World-in-Theatre founder Sonny Lim and dancers Kavitha Krishnan, Huang Yuzhu and Shanti Gomes riveted me.... I liked the way elements of different art forms were infused into this anthology of work, most of which explored the richness of life and how it could be both bitter and sweet, sometimes at the same time."
Kenneth Kwok, The Flying Inkpot.
Sonny Lim, Huang Yuzhu
French Double-Bill:
Two Women for One Ghost & La Musica
by Rene de Obaldia and Marguerite Duras
April 2005, The Substation
Directed by Chris Cheers & Sonny Lim
"World-in-Theatre, one of Singapore’s perennially braver theatre companies, ... served up a French duet for its second show of the season. What was courageous about this choice is that the two works and their playwrights remain largely unknown in this corner of the world, though both of the authors are fairly well-known, even celebrated, in their native land ... This production could have been absolutely deadly with actors who gave anything less than the fully committed performances served up here by Debra Teng and Ferlin Jayatissa ... [they] brought out a fine melange of scarred emotions that kept us at all interested in the tortured journey these characters were taking."
Richard Lord, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
Debra Teng, Ferlin Jayatissa
Elektra
by Sophocles
January 2005, Esplanade Recital Studio
Directed by Subra V
“This Elektra was an ensemble piece par excellence…. World-in-Theatre’s unique approach to staging Euripides…. probably brings us closer to the original experience of watching tragedy at one of those biannual festivals in Athens.”
Richard Lord, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
“..a postmodern theatre feast for the senses, and all this achieved without an ever-changing elaborate set or a single prop. Never have dance, music and drama fused on a local stage with such complexity and success.”
Cyril Wong, Nanyang Arts Magazine
The Apparatus
from Franz Kafka
July 2004, The Substation Garden
Directed by Subra V
"One can feel the deliberately grotesque viscerality permeating the murky universe of Franz Kafka's novella in this theatrical adaptation ... Priya Arun had the quality of a sultry Marlene Dietrich in a Josef von Sternberg film, her arched eyebrows and flaming red lips forming an insolent mask for the character's enigmatic core."
Clarissa Oon, The Straits Times
Mohan Sachdev, Philip Marcelo, Ferlin Jayatissa
IMohan Sachdev, Philip Marcelo, Ferlin Jayatissa
Directed by Elizabeth de Roza
"No review of a production by World-In-Theatre would be complete without comment about the theatrics underscoring the performances and here is another embarrassment of riches. When Jesus meets Satan in the desert, it is a scene without words and yet the classical Indian dance style of Sonny Lim playing Satan in the form of a snake is truly mesmerising and says all that it needs to. It is a truly magical scene, as are others where director-choreographer de Roza directs the actors to present storms and long travels through clever movements of their body. These form simple but very effective moving tableaux, with the actors in costumes of bright colours vividly set against a stark and largely white set...."
Kenneth Kwok, The Flying Inkpot
The Gospel According to Mark
Feb 2004, Sculpture Square & Substation Garden
April 2004, Esplanade Studio Theatre
Rodney Oliveiro (centre) as Jesus
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
by Peter Shaffer
July 2003, The Substation Garden
July 2003, The Substation Garden
Directed by Chris Cheers and Sonny Lim
"...World-In-Theatre makes you feel like you have been transported to ancient Greece, Shakespeare’s street theatre or a storytelling session by a Wise Elder around a fire ... Watching them on stage is mesmerizing because they approach their performances with an almost spiritual devotion. They draw on ancient forces and perform almost as if taken over by them. Their bodies become the vessels through which these forces flow, allowing the actors to be stripped bare of vanity and pose but still able to bring epic texts to life like ‘The Ramayana’ and 'The Royal Hunt of the Sun' – the story of how 167 men destroyed the Inca empire of 24 million for its gold – through the sheer force of their performance."
Kenneth Kwok, The Flying Inkpot
R. Chandran, Cheng Tan, Dick Soo, Philip Marcelo, Sonny Lim, Priya Arun
Ramayana
by Sonny Lim
May 2002, The Substation Garden
Directed by Chris Cheers
“… in a piece that explores the themes of heroism, virtue, loyalty and passion, it was particularly powerful to see the coming together of these various artists, all performing their hearts out with such love and fervour in tribute to their fallen comrade and leader, the late William Teo, this being Asia-In-Theatre Research Centre's first show without its artistic director and founder. It was hard for the audience to distance itself from that and not be caught up in the spirit of the work. Did it affect my objective reading of the play? Perhaps. But what is successful theatre if not a means to be able to channel and share such humanity with the audience?”
Kenneth Kwok, The Flying Inkpot
Subra V, Juraimy Abu Bakar, Sonny Lim, Christina Sergeant
Sita
by Sonny Lim
December 2000, The Substation Garden
Directed by Elizabeth de Roza
Produced by Asia-in-Theatre Research Centre
"The concept and artistic interpretation of this story by director Elizabeth de Roza and her creative team, writer Sonny Lim and choreographer Kuo Jing Hong was intriguing, with the use of contrasts and juxtapositions on many levels....The acting by director De Roza was very strong...she was able to convey the pain of Bophana and her struggle to retain her identity..."
Clarissa Oon, The Straits Times
Mohan Sachdev, Elizabeth de Roza
Equus
by Peter Shaffer
May 2000, The Substation Garden
Directed by Chris Cheers
Produced by Asia-in-Theatre Research Centre
"In this sweltering weather, few things are worth getting stewed in the outdoors for. Unless it is at the Substation Garden and you are watching a play whose psychological and intellectual tug-of-war seems to extend your life for a few heightened hours."
Clarissa Oon, The Straits Times
Ian Loy, Subra V, Elizabeth de Roza