The Vault: Gossip, Symphony & Other Matters

One Year Back Home by Robert Yeo is about the lives of 20-something-year-old Singaporeans returning home from studying overseas in 1972. What will 20-something-year-olds nearly 40 years later make of the play?

First staged in 1980, One Year Back Home was a runaway breakthrough for Singapore English-language theatre. In 2019, students from the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies Theatre Lab delved into this landmark play and have crafted three unique performance responses:

Symphony 404 is a riff off the premise in One Year Back Home of old friends reuniting for a shared purpose. A reunion concert for their alma mater goes south when alumni members of a school band end up fighting with each other.

What Matters features Lisa Ang, the daughter of main character Ang Siew Hwa. Now in her 50s, Lisa is a single woman of mixed parentage who is in politics. This performance charts Lisa’s rise to prominence and the reactions of different cross-sections of the public.

Gossip GRLs is a farce that examines the support staff of Grassroots Leaders (GRLs). The performance follows the misadventures of a new volunteer joining the chaotic and competitive world of grassroots leadership.