Imagine being on Palawan Beach in Sentosa along with 29 different folks all with "something" to say, sitting on picnic mats and watching a nice sunset to boot. Is it an antipodean to speed-dating? Nope, it's a play.

After presenting one in a bar last year, Skinned Knee Productions goes to the beach with Sonnets For An Old Century.

Written by the Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican playwright Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries), it comprises a series of monologues about 29 deceased individuals (played by established actors like Brendon Fernandez, Jo Tan, Candice De Rozario, Crispian Chan, among others), who find themselves in limbo and are each given the chance to say one final thing to the world.

The play is organised in collaboration with Quinta Productions as part of i-AM 2012 Festival, which kicks off on Feb 29. Held by undergraduates of LASALLE College of the Arts' Arts Management programme (the festival includes exhibitions, a poetry slam and a rock concert at various venues).

Running for an hour-and-a-half to two hours, it's going to be a casual experience where it's okay to get sand between your toes, said director Rayann Condy. Want to have a picnic? Come in your bikinis or trunks? That's perfectly up to you.

"We found this really beautiful strip where the bushes and trees (make) for a kind of natural enclosure. It's not a section which a lot of people are familiar with - it's definitely not the big wide Zoukout beach!" she laughed.

The location had already been chosen before Condy came on board with the piece from one of her favourite writers. "I loved the concept, so I read plays set in or connected to the beach. I read a lot of really bad ones!" she laughed. "So I came to the conclusion that trying to find something ritually set on the beach is not gonna happen and tried to expand on it a bit more."

In Sonnets For An Old Century, a slew of characters present disparate monologues "from looking at the stars to husbands cheating on them to running for Parliament".

"The range of topics and characters is just insane. Some are laugh-out loud, some are tear jerkers, some are just beautiful poetry," she said.

As for the beach itself, Condy hasn't exactly been a Sentosa regular. "Being Australian, I do miss a good beach. But I must admit I don't like huge crowds. But I think it'll be worth it on this occasion," she quipped.



Sonnets For An Old Century is on March 3, 6pm, Angsana, Palawan Beach, Sentosa. Tickets at S$25 and S$30 from www.quintaproductions.com. The i-AM 2012 Festival begins on Feb 29. For details, visit http://i-am.sg.