A flicker book look at authoritarianism

Daniel Nelson Photo: Elvin Hansen

No Particular Order at Theatre 503 explores authoritarianism, but no, it’s not about President Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Not specifically anyway, says Singaporean playwright Joel Tan.

Conflict in Ukraine makes it topical, but Tan says he is “more broadly interested in dissecting power, looking at the relationship between individuals and the state, how living under great power distorts ordinary people, how people make it through.”

Perhaps that’s because the island state’s image around the world stems largely from the tight control of its stern “founding father” and first prime Minister, Lew Kwan Yew.

But that was then. These days, says 34-year-old Tan, “culturally Singapore is a pretty exciting place.  There’s a general sense of relaxation in some respects. There’s some still intense censorship, and anxiety about control, but space is opening up.

“Theatre in Singapore is robust and vibrant and there’s a lot of new writing. Over the decades it has moved from a subculture to a more mainstream space. There’s a lot of hunger to participate in the critical space.”

Tan came to Britain in 2017 and now shuttles between the two countries. Several published plays have attracted attention — two narrowly missed awards — but No Particular Order is his first full production.

The theatre blurb says of the play: “Through the lives of ornithologists, bureaucrats, soldiers and tour guides, No Particular Order charts the fall, rise and continuation of a single society, asking the same repeated question ‘Is it empathy, or power, that endures?’”

The play is short, only just over an hour, and quick-fire. 

“It’s like a flicker book,” he says, and is a challenge for the four actors: Daniel York Loh, Pandora Colin, Jules Chan, Pía Laborde-Noguez, playing a host of characters. And the audience “is actively enlisted to draw meaning and conclusions.”

Does he expect London audiences to differ in their reactions from those in Singapore? “I don’t know. I’m about to find out.”

* No Particular Order plays at Theatre 503, 503 Battersea Park Road, SW11 on 31 May-13 June. Info: 7978 7040/ https://theatre503.com