Pistachios and Whipped Cream by A Yagnya

Theresa Tan in 1987. Theodora, better known as Theo, has been living alone in her university hostel. One day, a girl named Sandra dressed all in yellow, moves in. Their personalities and family backgrounds are worlds apart, resulting in their differing perceptions about the world they share. With a healthy dose of varsity dramas, boys, and an “unflushable poop”, this play tells the journey of two ladies who managed to come to some degree of mutual understanding of each other.

Directorial Vision:
When A Yagnya first read Pistachios and Whipped Cream, the images that flashed through her mind were possibly not at all intended by the playwright when Tan first wrote the play in 1987. In her investigation and interpretation of this text, A Yagnya wishes to explore how the existing stereotype of foreigners in Singapore can be made better. Her adaptation seeks to portray the character of Sandra as a Chinese national and Theo as a Singaporean, thus giving rise to a set of different personal interactions between the characters. By working with the comedy present in Tan’s text, she hopes to achieve a work that questions its audience subtly on their views without being preachy.

Presenting this 1st phase of the exploration as a dramatized reading incorporating some basic multimedia and physical theatre work will allow her to crystalise her vision for the full work. The process will help her develop a conscious style for text based direction, through written reflections and documentation of the process.

A Yagnya aims to develop Pistachios and Whipped Cream into a full staging.

Pistachios and Whipped Cream was developed under Centre 42's Guest Room (now known as the New Scripts Residency). Read about Guest Room here.