SIFA 2015 x W!ld Rice Present: Hotel

PUBLISHED August 26th, 2015 04:00 pm | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 03:08 pm

Next up in local production powerhouse W!ld Rice’s 2015 season ImagiNATION, a series of new productions inspired by the stars of the Singapore flag, Hotel is a two part, multi-generational epic that explores the recurring histories in the stories of the guests, the chambermaids, the bellhops and the owners of the hotel…and no prizes for guessing which property was the real-life inspiration for the eponymous ‘hotel’!

Commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), this 5-hour epic play is charged with discussing the theme of ‘Progress’ from ImagiNATION, as well as the overall theme of SIFA 2015, which is ‘Post-Empires’.

The action on stage involves Singaporean, Malayans, British subjects, and migrant workers from all over the world. Ghosts communicate with the living and ancestors leave their traces behind. Written by Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten, and directed by Glen Goei and Ivan Heng, Hotel promises to be a truly compelling production. The first rate cast include Ghafir Akbar, Ben Cutler, Brendon Fernandez, Jo Kukathas, Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin, Pam Oei, Julie Wee, and Siti Khalijah Zainal.

The crew rehearsing for Hotel

The playwrights (rightly) wanted to go beyond the past 50 years of Singapore’s history, so the production starts in 1915, about a century after Sir Stamford Raffles arrived. It might not be as far back as one might imagine, but it is, indeed, a lot of material to wade through for a play.

Unlike, the previous two ImagiNATION productions, Hotel was conceived, produced and staged in partnership with SIFA. ‘But this is a W!LD RICE production through and through.’ says Wild Rice’s Artistic Director and the co-Director of Hotel, Ivan Heng.

Co-Director Glen Goei notes that this year, ‘SIFA Director Ong Keng Sen decided to shine a spotlight on local artists, with a bit of an international twist. The theme asks us, as Singaporeans, to think about how we interact with and are influenced by empires all around us. That includes everything from the British empire to more nuanced notions of colonisation, like capitalism. That’s been interesting for us to work with, and we very much appreciate the opportunity to do for SIFA what we try to do with all our work: celebrate the talent in Singapore’s theatre industry, from the playwrights to the cast to the creative and production teams.’

On why they chose a hotel to represent ‘progress’, Ivan said, ‘The metaphor of a hotel is layered and rich. It reflects so many ideas and themes about Singapore and about life in general. The hotel is a place where people from all over the world check in. They make plans, do business, eat, rest, have sex, dream… and then they leave. That’s a bit like life, isn’t it? To extend the metaphor: when the cleaning staff remove all traces of the hotel’s guests and their activities, does that mean they are really gone? What lingers after them? We thought that, by checking into one hotel room over the course of a century, from 1915 to 2015, we’d get to watch the ebb and flow of Singapore’s identity in a really unique, intimate way.’

Yet another rehearsal session for Hotel

Glen continues, ‘While researching this piece, we’ve watched the generations come and go. The past becomes the present, which heralds the future… and that arrives sooner than you’d think! Throughout the process, we’ve realised that so much of history is cyclical: decades pass, but the same concerns – like xenophobia, racial tensions and power differences – arise over and over again. That raises fascinating questions about the concept of ‘Progress’. How do people deal with the same issues at different points in time? How do viewpoints change over time?’

Well, to find the answers to the above questions, one must watch the production.

Hotel is running from Thursday, 27 August to Sunday, 30 August 2015 at the Victoria Theatre. For more ticketing information, please click here.