Inspired by Antigone as well as stories from the Cultural Revolution, The Shape of a Bird evokes a magical world of warring birds and cicadas through the creative use of puppetry. Within an isolated cell, a Writer tries to retain her imagination and freedom by writing stories and letters to her daughter. She forges a tentative friendship with her jailor, even as she resists his attempts to force a confession out of her. In the meantime, she creates a magical world of birds and cicadas in her mind, which features a young heroine, Ann, who similarly defies the authorities to put her stories on the page and bring her brother back to life. However, as the pressures on the Writer intensify in the real world, she is forced to choose between her stories and her own daughter. Gradually, the boundaries between the two worlds dissolve, and events go spinning out of the Writer’s control, in both her real and imagined life.
The Shape of a Bird is playwright Jean Tay’s latest creation. With the support of the Centre’s Guest Room programme, Jean, together with director Mei Ann Teo and a team of actors, works towards presenting a work-in-progress play-read on 12 July 2015 in the Rehearsal Studio. Thereafter, input from invited audiences will feed into refining the play for a future staging in 2016.
