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Every Singaporean Daughter tackles gender politics, identity and race

SINGAPORE — “I will win, I can do this, I am strong, I can do this.” The rallying cry of the young cast members in the beginning scene of Every Singaporean Daughter pretty much sums up the tone of the play.

SINGAPORE — “I will win, I can do this, I am strong, I can do this.” The rallying cry of the young cast members in the beginning scene of Every Singaporean Daughter pretty much sums up the tone of the play.

Staged last weekend at KC Arts Centre by Unsaid, a socially minded youth arts collective, this youth-driven play attempted to convince the audience that it had the mettle to take on weighty and uncomfortable issues associated with gender politics and identity.

“From the beginning, the team strongly believed in the power of stories, especially those left unsaid, which was why we named our organisation Unsaid,” shared the show’s producer Timothy Seet, who is also Unsaid’s executive director.

“Sometimes social issues are trivialised because people only hear about them, or think they know it, and maybe that’s why they don’t step forward. But these stories are about social problems we face, such as why must a girl do something that society deems fit,” he added.

From sexual assault and women in sports to race, religion and body shaming, the one-and-a-half hour-long performance was filled with monologues and cast performances that attempted to address many sensitive topics confronted by women and even men in Singapore today.

This project was no easy feat given that, for most of the team, it was their first time taking on a play professionally and from scratch.

“It was hard to get people to believe in us and we faced the same difficulties all young start-ups or organisations face,” Seet explained, such as getting support for the project. Nonetheless, Unsaid persisted and both the play and the collective are supported by the National Youth Council under the Youth Month Grant that is part of a larger celebration of the Youth Month July.

Centred on Iman, an ambitious Malay student, and Chloe, a determined Wushu athlete, who both face overwhelming pressure to be the perfect Singaporean daughter even as they pursue their own aspirations, the play succeeds in exploring the emotional nuances dealing with societal pressure.

The play was held up by strong performances from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts graduate Rusydina Afiqah Razali in her portrayal of Iman as well as actors Faiz Othman and Nadiyah Farhanah who play her brother and mother, respectively.

The most searing and show-stealing performer is theatre actor Darren Guo who plays Daniel, Iman’s boyfriend and older brother to Chloe. His portrayal of a Singaporean male dealing with his own internal pressures, while having to cope with an interracial relationship and his sister being sexually assaulted by her coach, was surprisingly relatable. If the entire play had focused on Daniel and Iman as central characters, it would have resonated with the audience more effectively.

The heavyweight issue of sexual assault within the context of a student-coach relationship was interesting but not as impactful as it could have been. National Youth Film Awards Best Performance Award winner Amber Lin struggled to pull off the nuanced characterisation of a stubborn yet vulnerable teenager dealing with a family who expected her to be less athletic and with the alarmingly forceful advances of her coach.

“It was a great challenge to develop the trust with the character that ended up assaulting Chloe. I’ve never explicitly experienced such a shocking turn-around, and I think that was the hardest to process, the feeling of suddenly being forced to lose trust,” Lin admitted.

Staging Every Singaporean Daughter also served as an opportunity of discovery and experiential learning for the young cast and crew.

As a child of Malaysian-born parents who spent her whole life in Singapore, Lin shared how she was drawn to her character because she “wanted to know if there really was something that I could latch onto in order to define my identity as a Singaporean”.

“I think in the end, if I consider this country my home, and I have a sincere desire to improve this society for all, I am a Singaporean Daughter. This was one of the discoveries I had in this production and I’m so thankful for that.”

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