How white all the walls are. Even after all these years.
24 – 26 October 2024, 8pm
26 – 27 October 2024, 3pm
Esplanade&Me Specials (12 August – 15 September 2024. Limited tickets)
Esplanade&Me members enjoy a 20% discount off standard price tickets. Log in to your Esplanade&Me member account to access the promo code.
Performed in English and Mandarin. Open captions are available for all performances.
There will be a post-show dialogue with the artists after the 8pm performance on Friday 25 October 2024.
White, All White offers a glimpse into the quiet lives of a family of women across three generations. As they grapple with their individual struggles, dreams and desires whilst living under the same leaky roof, what unites them is the deep love and concern they have for one another. However, an unexpected financial misadventure challenges the household. Can their relationships endure when tested by adversity, especially when these women’s lives are intrinsically linked?
Written and directed by The Necessary Stage’s Associate Artist Deonn Yang, White, All White explores the joys and tensions of family and individual desires—and the sacrifices we make for the ones we love.
Funny, charming and poignant, this life-affirming play hits all the right notes when it comes to family drama.
Written & Directed by Deonn Yang
Performed by Coco Wang, Goh Guat Kian, Jodi Chan, and Koh Wan Ching
Dramaturg: Sindhura Kalidas
Set Designer: Wong Chee Wai
Sound Designer: Safuan Johari
Lighting Designer: Emanorwatty Saleh
Terms of Ticket Sales
Conditions of Entry
General
All information is correct at time of publishing but may be subject to change without prior notice.
The Organiser reserves the right the amend the above without prior notice. In the event of any dispute, the Organiser’s decision is final.
THE NECESSARY STAGE
Established in 1987, The Necessary Stage (TNS) is a non-profit theatre company with charity status. Our mission is to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches the heart and mind. TNS has the honour of being the only arts company in Singapore helmed by two Cultural Medallion recipients: Artistic Director and Founder Alvin Tan and Resident Playwright Haresh Sharma. The company is also the organiser and curator of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.
TNS is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme for the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026.
For more information, visit necessary.org and tnsarchives.com.
Follow us on:
Facebook at facebook.com/thenecessarystage,
Twitter at twitter.com/tns_sg
Instagram at instagram.com/thenecessarystage
LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/the-necessary-stage
GOH GUAT KIAN 吴悦娟 – PERFORMER
Guat Kian is a full-time theatre practitioner and teacher. After graduating from Practice Performing Arts School’s Drama Programme in 1982, she has appeared in more than 90 plays—contributing significantly to the development of Singapore theatre. They include Kuo Pao Kun’s Mama Looking for Her Cat, Lao Jiu, My Mother’s Wooden Chest, The Spirits Play and Sunset Rise. In 2006 and 2019, Guat Kian won Best Actress at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards with her performance in Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea by The Finger Players and Underclass by The Necessary Stage and Drama Box.
KOH WAN CHING – PERFORMER
Wan Ching started working as a stage manager while training as a performer, and now also teaches and directs. She has worked with companies including Drama Box, Nine Years Theatre and The Necessary Stage, and has performed in festivals in Beijing, Macao, Seoul, Toyama, Brisbane and Hong Kong. She has trained with Mary Overlie, SITI Company as well as the Suzuki Company of Toga and is a graduate of the inaugural SITI Conservatory Program. She is currently a faculty member of the Intercultural Theatre Institute.
JODI CHAN – PERFORMER
Jodi graduated from the University of Exeter, UK, with a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Practice - Physical Performance & Actor Training (Distinction). Since 2014, she has been working professionally as a theatre performer and educator. Her acting credits include The Dog Who Wasn’t Useful (Drama Box), The Crab Flower Club (Toy Factory), Electrify My World (Nine Years Theatre), Chinatown Crossings (Drama Box), Rubbish Prince (3Pumpkins) and Four Horse Road (The Theatre Practice).
COCO WANG – PERFORMER
Coco Wang Ling (She/They) is a multidisciplinary theatre maker, actor and collaborator. In 2022, she graduated from the Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) degree. Her creative practice is led by her passion for play and world-building, and places audience connection at the forefront of her practice. She works to challenge theatrical conventions by creating performances in non-traditional theatre spaces. Coco is passionate about theatre education for young children and, through this, she wishes to create a more empathetic world through empowerment. She believes in making the arts more accessible by practicing brave spaces in the rehearsal room.
DEONN YANG – PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR
Deonn is an actor, theatre-maker and teacher. She graduated from LASALLE College of Arts in2016 with a BA (First Class Hons) in Acting. Deonn is currently an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage (TNS), and a core member of Playwrights’ Commune, an independent playwriting collective.
As an actor, Deonn has been a part of Esplanade’s PLAYtime! and Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts,M1 Singapore Fringe Festivals, and the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). Her notable theatre credits include Tanah•Air水•土. by Drama Box, and Straight Acting produced by Wild Rice, which earned her a Best Actress nomination at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2022.
As a theatre-maker, Deonn made her professional debut as a playwright-director at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2023. She also recently directed a successful run of Survivor Singapore as part of Esplanade’s Feed Your Imagination (F.Y.I) 2023 programme. Deonn has collaborated with TNS and Haresh Sharma since 2017 and was recently assistant director to Haresh for Acting Mad (2022) and Three Years in the Life and Death of Land (2023).
Deonn is grateful and excited for the opportunity to continue working with TNS as an Associate Artist for 2024/2025, and looks forward to growing, learning and developing further as an artist. She is interested in people and their stories, and always having a good laugh.
SINDHURA KALIDAS – DRAMATURG
Sindhura Kalidas is a theatre practitioner and educator. She is currently an Associate Artist with The Necessary Stage (TNS) and a core team member of The Finger Players (TFP).
Sindhu’s recent performance credits include Wild Rice’s Psychobitch, Deonn Yang’s Why Be Good When You Can Be The Best? (2023), presented as part of the M1Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore Repertory Theatre’s The Coronalogues (2020), and TNS’s Off Centre (2019).
Her recent dramaturgical credits include the Singapore Youth Theatre’s double bill Every Student Is A Good Student/In My Head (2023), TFP’s Puppet Origin Stories (2022), as well as TNS’s Acting Mad (2022). She is also the writer of TNS’s Happy Indian Women (2023),a verbatim theatre production which questions the assumptions we make about the diverse South Asian diaspora in Singapore today, which she co-directed with Haresh Sharma.
Sindhu is a recipient of the NAC Postgraduate Arts Scholarship and holds an MA (Distinction) in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths, University of London. She hopes to continue exploring themes of race, gender, and community in future works and shed light on underrepresented and misrepresented groups in Singapore.
She is deeply grateful to be learning from and growing with TNS.
WONG CHEE WAI – SET DESIGNER
Chee Wai is a full-time freelance set designer, and has designed and worked with various performing arts companies in Singapore. Some of his recent works include The Finger Players’ OIWA (Singapore International Festival of Arts [SIFA] 2020), Wild Rice’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Fair Play, Merdeka, Emily of Emerald Hill, Supervision, Mama White Snake, HOTEL, Monkey Goes West, Public Enemy and The House of Bernarda Alba, Checkpoint Theatre’s Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner (SIFA 2019), The Necessary Stage’s The Year of No Return (SIFA 2020), Off Centre as well as Sight Lines Productions’ Lord of the Flies.
EMANORWATTY SALEH – LIGHTING DESIGNER
Emanorwatty began her love for theatre in 1992. Her first major work as a lighting designer was for a daunting play Indra Bangsawan by Teater Kami, in 1997 at the Victoria Theatre. Bagged with years of experience since then, she attained a BA in Technical Theatre Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2007. Almost instantly after, she became a mother.
Now since her return to the craft, she embarked on what she called street style where her approach is less formal and conventional, allowing more room for exploration and experimentation, and best of all, leading to unpredictability. Some of her recent credits in 2024 include Motherland by the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 (The Practice Space), The Dog Who Wasn’t Useful at Huayi Festival 2024 by Drama Box Ltd (Esplanade Theatre Studio), Air (2024) by Drama Box Ltd (Singtel Waterfront Theatre) and Phinny and Wally by Nine Years Theatre (Drama Centre Black Box).
SAFUAN JOHARI – SOUND DESIGNER
Safuan Johari is an artist who works primarily as a composer, music producer and sound designer. Music-making is usually a world building exercise and the resulting microcosms often meander through traditional, experimental and popular topographies of Nusantara (Maritime Southeast Asia) culture. He started out as a prominent figure in Singapore’s underground music scene and has expanded his practice into composing for theatre, dance, films and multimedia installations.
Individually and as a collaborator, Safuan has performed, exhibited or presented works at Palais de Tokyo Paris, Festival/Tokyo, Perth Festival, Worldwide Festival Sète, Singapore International Festival of the Arts and the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.