STATE, STAGE AND SPECTRUM: MEMORIES OF THE 1987 ‘MARXIST’ CONSPIRACY IN SINGAPORE’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRE

Abstract

Between May and June 1987, twenty-two individuals including lawyers, laypeople, and theatre practitioners were detained by the Internal Security Department (ISD) under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly plotting a ‘Marxist’ Conspiracy (Conspiracy) to subvert the Singapore Government. Eight of these detainees belonged to a local theatre group, Third Stage, and were accused of staging political plays that challenged class divisions. Upon their respective releases by 1990, both the Government and the former detainees remained largely silent about the arrests. Current literature on this Conspiracy has mostly focused on contrasting official silences with the public memories by former detainees, who became increasingly forthcoming after 2010. Some former detainees established the activist group Function 8, which has led public demonstrations calling for the abolishment of ISA and commemorating those who were arrested. However, there is a literature gap in understanding the impact and memories of the Conspiracy from the 1990s until the early 2000s. This thesis takes some steps towards filling some of these gaps by examining the theatrical memorialisations of the detentions in Singapore’s English-language theatre in the 1990s. By contextualising the plays written in the wake of and in response to the Conspiracy, it is argued that the detentions created varying degrees of apprehension among theatre practitioners, who opted to reflect on the incidents through their plays. Further scrutiny using theatrical theory into the devices employed in three specific works, namely Tan Tarn How’s Undercover (1994), Chong Tze Chien’s Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) (1999) and Russell Heng’s Half Century (2001) reveal how each playwright has attempted to performatively narrate the detainees’ interrogation experiences for public audiences. Understanding the processes behind these plays and their portrayals of the Conspiracy provide a fuller sense of the implications of the detentions beyond the perspectives propounded by the former detainees and the state.