IN SEARCH OF STRATEGIES : DEPICTING ALTERNATIVE SEXUALITY IN SINGAPORE PLAYS

Abstract

In a country as morally conservative as Singapore, the depiction of alternative sexuality on stage involves complex choices. On one hand, playwrights have to consider questions of censorship and their plays accessibility to a mainstream heterosexist audience, and on the other, they also have a responsibility to the under-represented community to whom they are giving a voice. In the case of Singapore, where the stage is heavily policed and audience knowledge of alternative sexuality is marked by ignorance, same-sex representation is often overtly 'disguised' rather than openly displayed. Chapter One takes a closer look at the plays involving transsexuals in Singapore and exposes them as being works which merely exploit the figure of the transsexual as stereotype, in an attempt to appeal for a general acceptance of the marginalized 'other'. Chapter Two examines the various advantages and diadvantages in using ambiguity as an alternative to dominant ideological discourses, applying Otto Fong's Cetacea as an example. Chapter Three is an analysis of the traps involved in the use of realism to represent alternative sexuality, looking particularly at the 'coming out' of the lesbian in Eleanor Wong's plays.