The Blind Circus by Dora Tan

Compared to my other plays, The Blind Circus went through a relatively short gestation period – just one year. In early 2014, I knew I wanted to write a play about censorship. Lots of stuff were going on – the NLB Library saga, the Charlie Hebdo massacre are the ones that come to mind. As I did my research, collecting articles that had anything to do with censorship, more incidents happened – Amos Yee happened.

Even now, in Oct 2015, Amos continues to stir debate about censorship. He is everything I detest about free speech – thoughtlessness, attention-seeking, offensive (intentional or otherwise).

Yet, why do people care so much about being able to say whatever they like? I realised it wasn’t so much the words. What they cared about was that a right was being taken away from them. A right that is as inherent to their being as perhaps one of their senses.

And that is how The Blind Circus started. I used allegory because I wanted to distil the issues into its simple parts. I have often found Aesop’s fables ingenious in its simplicity and ability to get across a message clearly. So before I wrote the play, I wrote a story.

I explored the role of censorship and its ramifications. How do we balance the rights of the individual with the interests of the community? Do we value social cohesion, safety and economic progress at the expense of personal freedom?

What are the rights of the individual? Does the indvidual have the right to jeopardise the safety of the community?

What about respect and trust between the state and community? The state’s version of trust is to come up with the ‘self-classification scheme’ for artists, which ends up making artists censor themselves. For the artist, this is not a show of trust. It is a show of who’s in charge.

The state’s reason, as it keeps repeating, is, it cannot risk insensitivities which may cause riots. Never mind the debate, the airing of views which can inform our populace.

The play also throws up issues of how the state measures happiness – in terms of GDP. Have we become such a materialistic society, that we see censorship as merely an inconvenience? It seems many of us are prepared to be censored if we have our HDB flat or more.

In the end, it comes down to a matter of balance – how much would the state need to censor before it becomes unacceptable? How far can we allow what we say, hear or do to be censored before we draw the line? Which is more tragic? Censorship? Or a world without censorship?

I went through the usual newspapers and online blogs. Everyone had something to say about censorship.

I gained a lot from the process. As a writer, I tend to work solo. This process forced me to go ‘out there’ to look for collaborators. This was good because I reconnected with many actors I normally don’t speak to. In addition, when I sent out invitations, I also connected with producers and directors. I had to send my script in many instances. The process forced me out of a comfort zone and made me and my writing more visible.

During rehearsals, hearing the actors speak allowed me to write another draft. So all in all I wrote five drafts in 18 months. Working together as a team, I learnt about my collaborators’ capabilities. It was a good basic lesson in theatre production as I had to do non-writing tasks from budgeting to preparing the programme.

The Read itself went smoothly and professionally. Staff at C42 were very helpful. The actors performed their best. Certain pieces of music which were integral to my writing could be played and this gave the audience the tone of the work.

However, I’m not sure my goal to interest theatre companies to stage my play, was achieved. The people I wanted to see my play never got to see it. Perhaps I did not market the Read enough. Or perhaps it was the haze! Another learning lesson – remind guests two days before the event!