Artistic Director of Hailstones, Goh Boon Teck
To celebrate Toy Factory’s 20th anniversary, Singapore’s first bilingual theater company screens six classic productions documented on film. We speak to chief artistic director Goh Boon Teck about Hailstones.
Why call it Hailstones—a little foreboding don’t you think?
It could very well be! But, we’re actually playing on the word “hail”—something to be hailed about. To us, this is concentrated residue of a product that has come together over the last 20 years.
So why screen the plays instead of re-staging them?
All these six productions are huge in terms of their staging, so another live staging might take us another 20 years. To make the screenings more interactive, we have two to three speakers to introduce each screening and discuss the fun, joys and pains of the experience.
Tell us a bit about the plays.
We cover a wide variety of our productions. Some are in Mandarin, some are in English, some are about legendary figures, some are set in modern Singapore and others in fantastical worlds. I don’t like people to classify Toy Factory, I think coming to one of our plays is always exciting because you don’t know what to expect.
Which of the six plays are you the most proud of?
The strongest attachment I have is with The Crab Flower Club, which I spent a lot of effort to write last year but was ultra-rewarding. And the wonderful thing is that it’s going to be performed in Beijing in October.
So what’s next for Toy Factory?
I have so many crazy ideas! I’ve always wanted to do a Greek tragedy like Medea on a barge. Maybe I just like to kill children.
Don’t miss Hailstones on Aug 5-7, 3 and 8pm, Recital Studio, The Esplanade, 1 Esplanade Drive, 6828-8377. $15 from Sistic.