Six Plays by Tan Tarn How

Local playwright Tan Tarn How’s compilation of plays so far could just as easily be titled A Guide to Singapore’s Top Political Controversies. The majority of his six plays – all written between 1992 and 2002 – are premised on prickly, politically charged moments in recent local history. The infamous Michael Fay case is a clear standout, as theatre director Dr KK Seet – who established the theatre studies programme at the National University of Singapore – details in the dense introduction.

Tan rarely spells things out clearly. No doubt in part to circumvent the ubiquitous out-of-bound markers, his settings are familiar but vaguely defined; silences, suggestions and subtexts are of crucial importance and easy resolutions simply anathema. Nonetheless, Tan’s style evolves dramatically through the chronologically arranged plays: the sentimental Home precedes the uproarious The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine and Undercover, plays that boldly confront what he perceives as the ridiculous government drive to churn out ‘soul’ and the dealings of the Internal Security Department respectively, through witty, eyebrow-raising scripts.

Regrettably, The Lady of Soul… gets bogged down by reductive, oft-espoused arguments about art’s transformative power (even if Tan admits he was much more naive when he wrote the play); and Undercover’s meandering focus dilutes the play’s political sting, undermining the potential of its clever meta-theatrical conceit with its overload of civil-service jokes (viz: ‘It is beyond the call of duty of a civil servant to show any initiative. Indeed, it is against tradition.’)

From there, the plays get much darker – and arguably better. Tan forgoes easy laughs for stomach-lurching forays into thorny and uncomfortable scenarios: Six of the Best uses the 1994 Fay caning controversy as a backdrop and catalyst to the unpleasant breakdown of expat-local relations in an advertising agency. The degeneration of communication to racist slurs marks a painful reminder that we haven’t quite excised our colonial baggage. The First Emperor’s Last Days is similarly upsetting, an eerie and disturbing Orwellian nightmare whose references are so thinly veiled that you wonder how Tan managed to elude the censors.

It may have been ten years or more since these plays were written, but the fears and dilemmas they raise haven’t aged. Tan’s dogged pursuit of ideas to their ugly conclusion unearths unpalatable truths that will jolt Singaporeans – and anyone with an interest in this nation-state – out of complacency. Six Plays is an eye-opening tome, but if you’re looking for a sleep-inducing, sheep-counting bedtime read, avert those eyes.