Written by Tan Tarn How, The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate “S” Machine (first staged in 1993) is a political satire about a government which decides that a nation needs more “soul” to make it a more vibrant place. A civil servant, Derek, decides to find the best way to achieve this is by calling for a “soul search”. Three candidates—a mama- san, a left-wing radical and a representative from the arts—present their ideas on what “soul” is. After hearing them, Derek undergoes an internal debate where he must decide if he should submit his recommendations to higher authorities based on what is morally right to him, or what is right for the government.
Penned by Tan Tarn How as part of Theatre Works’ pioneering Writers’ Lab, the script of The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate “S” Machine was first submitted to the Public Entertainment Licensing Unit (PELU) in 1991 for a performance license. The Unit had issues with 36 of the script’s total 67 pages and was returned to TheatreWorks with over 90 markings on it. Possibly contentious and objectionable in Tan’s play were its unfavourable portrayal of civil servants; its mockery of committees as being ineffective and useless; and its portrayal of Singapore as a nation without soul, among other matters. This resulted in a public reading of an edited version of the play, directed by Ivan Heng and presented by TheatreWorks at its bLACK bOX in 1992. The play received its first full staging in 1993, when the uncensored script was given a clean pass by the National Arts Council (NAC), under new guidelines set out by the Censorship Review Committee (CRC). Fellow journalist from The Straits Times, Koh Buck Song, opined in a 1992 feature that Tan’s play had passed uncut under the new guidelines due to its “spirit and long-term impact, which goes far beyond whether there are four-letter words or scantily-clad characters; its underlying meaning rather than surface details.” This 1993 production was directed by Ong Keng Sen, and its cast featured Gerald Chew, Jacintha Abisheganaden, Lim Yu-Beng, Lim Kay Tong and Rani Moorthy. The satirical approach towards themes such as civil service, gender, sexuality, censorship and the socio-cultural aspects of a nation made this play a landmark in the theatre scene and sociopolitical landscape of Singapore. The thought-provoking Lady of Soul was able to deftly raise a number of controversial concerns through its light-handed but incisive handling of such hot potato topics as culture and nation-building. Theatre critic Hannah Pandian had in a 1993 review, called it “arguably the first English [language] play to present the country critically and artistically without hiding behind coy allegory.”