2016
THE CHRONICLES OF ONE AND ZERO: KANCIL
Zeugma (together with Safuan Johari, Brandon Tay, Gloria Tan and Zulfadli Rashid) is an artist collective whose aim is to explore and excavate ancient Asian folklore, by reconstructing the old and new narratives, merging them and presenting them in a new format. Their intention is to explore storytelling through experiments in the convergence of mediums between traditions and contemporary methodologies.
The Studios 2014: Ten Thousand Tigers
Presented by Ho Tzu Nyen and The Esplanade
Synopsis:
A tape is played, a voice is emitted, the air vibrates. Speech is a spell. The ejected word, before it is burdened with meaning, is breath, that which animates the flesh of things.
The stage awakens. Curtains open, a flag flutters, photographs speak. A trail is beaten through a forest of shape-shifting symbols, where things lose their borders, and the line between man and animal, past and present, dissolves.
In 1421, Ming Dynasty mariner Admiral Zheng He visited Malacca. His translator, Ma Huan recorded:
“In town there are tigers
that can assume human form;
they enter the markets,
and walk about,
mixing with the populace.
If anyone recognized
one of these creatures,
he would seize it and kill it.”
The Malayan Tiger has always been a creature of metamorphosis. It thrives in the realm of metaphors and lives in a house with walls of human skin, and roofs of human hair. When you look into the faces of kings, you may catch a fleeting glimpse of the tiger that lurks beneath. Descendants of royal blood, along with shamans, can, in the midst of crossing a river, shed the prison of their human form – becoming tigers.
In the world premiere of film and theatre director Ho Tzu Nyen’s hallucinatory piece exploring the folklores, cosmologies and subterranean histories of Malaya, an ensemble of automated objects come to life – and recount the tale of the Malayan Tiger’s numerous deaths and incessant returns, across a thousand years. Seamlessly shifting between live performance, video and sound art, Ten Thousand Tigers is a theatrical séance bringing together spectral animals, magical shape-shifters and the ghosts of forgotten armies.
Directed & Written by: Ho Tzu Nyen
Set Design by: Andy Lim, Jed Lim
Lighting Design by: Andy Lim
Sound Design by: Jeffrey Yue
Music by: Yasuhiro Morinaga
Performed by: Bani Haykal, Hiro Machida, Rizman Putra, Sim Pern Yiau
Production: Yap Seok Hui, Stephanie Goh
Co-commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (Singapore), Asian Culture Complex – Asian Arts Theatre (Korea), Carriageworks (Australia), Wiener Festwochen (Austria).
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Photo: Collection of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board
A tape is played, a voice is emitted, the air vibrates. Speech is a spell. The ejected word, before it is burdened with meaning, is breath, that which animates the flesh of things.
The stage awakens. Curtains open, a flag flutters, photographs speak. A trail is beaten through a forest of shape-shifting symbols, where things lose their borders, and the line between man and animal, past and present, dissolves.
In 1421, Ming Dynasty mariner Admiral Zheng He visited Malacca. His translator, Ma Huan recorded:
“In town there are tigers
that can assume human form;
they enter the markets,
and walk about,
mixing with the populace.
If anyone recognized
one of these creatures,
he would seize it and kill it.”
The Malayan Tiger has always been a creature of metamorphosis. It thrives in the realm of metaphors and lives in a house with walls of human skin, and roofs of human hair. When you look into the faces of kings, you may catch a fleeting glimpse of the tiger that lurks beneath. Descendants of royal blood, along with shamans, can, in the midst of crossing a river, shed the prison of their human form – becoming tigers.
In the world premiere of film and theatre director Ho Tzu Nyen’s hallucinatory piece exploring the folklores, cosmologies and subterranean histories of Malaya, an ensemble of automated objects come to life – and recount the tale of the Malayan Tiger’s numerous deaths and incessant returns, across a thousand years. Seamlessly shifting between live performance, video and sound art, Ten Thousand Tigers is a theatrical séance bringing together spectral animals, magical shape-shifters and the ghosts of forgotten armies.
Directed & Written by: Ho Tzu Nyen
Set Design by: Andy Lim, Jed Lim
Lighting Design by: Andy Lim
Sound Design by: Jeffrey Yue
Music by: Yasuhiro Morinaga
Performed by: Bani Haykal, Hiro Machida, Rizman Putra, Sim Pern Yiau
Production: Yap Seok Hui, Stephanie Goh
Co-commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (Singapore), Asian Culture Complex – Asian Arts Theatre (Korea), Carriageworks (Australia), Wiener Festwochen (Austria).
============================================
Photo: Collection of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board
2012
The Song of The Broken Hearted Tiger
Presented by The Esplanade
Synopsis:
Once upon a time, a Tiger and a Forest lay entwined in a coil of love.
Fear of the Tiger deterred men from their lust for the Forest. And the Forest concealed the Tiger, away from the hatred of men.
Inside the Forest, the Tiger was invincible.
Then came a tribe of men, vast in numbers, smelling of gunpowder. They penetrated the Forest, rendered her foul and estranged her from her lover. In tears, the Tiger left.
Outside the Forest, the Tiger wandered in fear.
Without the protection of the Tiger, the Forest was ravaged by men. They stripped her leaves, and broke her wooden limbs. And the Tiger, without the cover of the Forest, was finally killed in a filthy alleyway.
One day, the Ghost of the Brokenhearted Tiger will find its way back to the Forest. In the ruins of the Green Cathedral, he will sing once more, and the hearts of all who hear his song will burst in grief.
The Song of the Brokenhearted Tiger is a theatrical lamentation about the annihilation of the Malayan Tiger in Singapore. It is as much an exercise in storytelling and a music recording session presented live, as it is a ritual of sound, light and smoke.
The Song of the Brokenhearted Tiger brings together a group of highly acclaimed local artists from music, dance, theatre and the visual arts with the sole purpose of invoking the spirit of the Malayan Tiger.
The Song of the Brokenhearted Tiger is the first installment of the Three Tigers Trilogy, a set of live performances dedicated to the figure of the tiger as it exists in the imagination, the memory and the history of Singapore.
Advisory: This performance includes the use of smoke effects and strobe lighting.
About 3 Tigers
3 Tigers are a savage new age music-making theatrical machine consisting of visual artists, theatre practitioners, artists, dancers and musicians. They specialise in channelling energies in order to tell stories about tigers that haunt the landscapes of your mind.
3 Tigers are currently made up of Andy Lim, Dharma, George Chua, Grace Low, Ho Tzu Nyen, Jeffrey Yue, Osman Abdul Hamid, Ray Aziz, Rizman Putra, and Stephanie Goh.