Will this year’s Shakespeare In The Park be the last?

SINGAPORE — Even though Romeo & Juliet is seeing the fastest ticket sales of all the Shakespeare In The Park productions, the popular annual event may be in peril.

“There is a possibility that this might be our last Shakespeare In The Park for a while,” said Gaurav Kripalani, artistic/managing director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT), which organises the event. “We lose a six-figure sum every year. Those losses are increasing, primarily because manpower costs are going up.”

In the years since the first Shakespeare In The Park play, Hamlet, back in 1997, the SRT’s board has been willing to incur the losses and subsidise the cost of tickets, especially for students, because they wanted to make this production extremely accessible. However, Kripalani said they can no longer sustain those losses.

“Until we are able to raise more money, this might be the last one,” he said. “We just thought Romeo And Juliet is very apt for that reason.”

It would be a pity to see the event die with a whimper. Shakespeare In The Park, said SRT’s executive director Charlotte Nors, is a “labour of love for all of us at SRT”.

According to Nors, it exposes large numbers of students and young people to Shakespeare’s work, and over the years, its stories have become part of the fabric of people’s lives.

“We had a guy who proposed on stage to his girlfriend, and now they’re expecting their first kid,” she said. “We were very inspired to do it because they have Shakespeare In The Park in New York, Sydney and London. Singapore should have it (too).”

Kripalani added: “Shakespeare In The Park in New York is free and it’s underwritten by the city. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have that experience in Singapore?”