There is a particular kind of tension that builds when a small group of people are left alone somewhere they cannot leave. Add uniforms, rank, and a night that stretches too long, and you get the setup for Charged, Teater Ekamatra’s much-cited 2010 play, back on stage from 23 July to 2 August 2026 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan.
The play is set on a Chinese New Year night, on a camp where a handful of soldiers have drawn the short straw of guard duty while everyone else is home for the holiday. Boredom and old grievances simmer quietly until Corporal Russell Lim arrives and disrupts whatever fragile order was holding the group together. By morning, something irreversible has happened, and Investigating Officer Victor de Souza is left piecing together what really occurred from accounts that do not quite line up. It is less a whodunit than a study in how institutions close ranks, and how race and power shape whose version of events gets believed.
Why Charged Still Matters Sixteen Years Later
Charged won Best Script at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards in 2011 and has since been named among the top ten plays in Singapore theatre history. Written by Chong Tze Chien, who will take over as Festival Director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts from 2026, the play was considered unusually direct for its time in how it handled race and institutional silence within national service. Watching it again now, well over a decade on, it is hard not to notice how little some of its questions about who gets the benefit of the doubt have dated.
It is also the kind of work that keeps Teater Ekamatra on our running list of Singapore’s best theatre companies, for staging plays that dig into subjects a lot of other stages leave alone.
This staging is directed by Mohd Fared Jainal, who also designed the set, with lighting by Adrian Tan and sound by Safuan Johari. The ensemble includes Brendon Fernandez, Irsyad Dawood, Teo Jun Vinh, Krish Natarajan, Ali Mazrin, Izzul Irfan, Siti Hajar Abdul Gani, and Serene Chen, several of whom have circled back to Ekamatra’s work more than once.
Where to Watch Charged in Singapore
Charged runs 23 July to 2 August 2026 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan. The play is performed in English, Malay, and Mandarin, and rated R18 by IMDA. Tickets start at $45 via BookMyShow, with concession pricing available for seniors, students, and full-time NSFs, and eligibility for the SG Culture Pass.
For anyone who caught the original run, or missed it and has heard it referenced since, this is a rare chance to see why it stuck. Visit bookmyshow.sg for the full ticketing details and showtimes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Charged follows a group of soldiers on guard duty during Chinese New Year, whose tensions escalate after Corporal Russell Lim arrives, leading to an incident investigated by Officer Victor de Souza.
Charged runs from 23 July to 2 August 2026 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan.
The play is written by Chong Tze Chien and directed by Mohd Fared Jainal, who also designed the set.
No, Charged is rated R18 by IMDA and is performed in English, Malay, and Mandarin.
Tickets are available via BookMyShow, with concession pricing for seniors, students, and full-time NSFs, and eligibility for the SG Culture Pass.