Comedy about student eco-terrorists has a fun concept but muddles the point.

The ongoing conversation surrounding climate change may be exhausting and anxiety-inducing, but for theatremaker Rachel Chin, that doesn’t always have to be the case, as she attempts to subvert that with her new play The Thieves.

Developed under Toy Factory’s The Wright Stuff playwright incubation programme, The Thieves made its premiere last week at the Gateway Theatre Black Box, following mentorship by director Jeffrey Tan. Inspired by heist narratives, The Thieves concerns itself with a university environment club that regularly performs extreme protests, bordering on eco-terrorism rather than mere activism. When they learn that a local fossil fuel company is about to acquire the last remaining patch of untouched land in Singapore, leader Pei Shan (Misha Paule Tan) once again turns to extremist ways in an attempt to save it, begging the question of whether the ends justify the means.

In many ways, The Thieves feels like a fresh, relevant concept that has the potential to go much further, particularly with its desire to satirise and poke fun at almost every party involved in the climate crisis, imagining a world where morals are truly rather grey, and pretty much everyone is a villain in their own right. As much as the club think they’re heroes of justice by fighting back against corporate greed, there is an interesting counter to that, where the green club’s leader wrestles with the fact that her own father (Joel Low) is the fuel company’s boss, and his reasons for staying on in the job are relatable to any Singaporean – all we want to do is to survive and find success, defined by wealth and status, in order to give our own family a good life.

Rachel is clearly a playwright with a lot of ideas, and this shows itself across the sheer variety of scenes that she has written for her actors. As a performer herself, there is a clear sense of joy that goes into her writing, where her actors seem to revel in their characters’ eccentricities, and allows them a chance to try different things out onstage. Take for example how throughout the play, there are small interludes that hint at the climate crisis worsening, with extreme temperamental weather, or pollution that causes characters to cough uncontrollably. This is a chance for her cast to do big ensemble moments as they rush across the stage, huddling up and shivering, or shielding themselves with umbrellas, ideal for new directors looking to experiment with different styles.

In other scenes, actors Sharon Mah and Belle get to show off their animal physicality, when they play a monkey and frog respectively. Twitchy, unpredictable and changing their voices accordingly, these are amusing interludes that provide a voice for the often silent animals around us, and evoking a degree of sympathy for their plight, at the mercy of humans simply looking to exploit them for their own selfish wants. Elsewhere, Sharon also gets to show off her comedic chops, whether relying on funny voices and her characters being inept to bring on the laughs, with lowbrow humour that easily appeals to a more general audience.

Even with the plethora of jokes and silly moments, Rachel makes it clear that she wants the issue of climate change to be taken seriously, and peppers her script with the occasional truth bomb. While characters are primarily one-dimensional and often played purely for comedy, there are times where they showcase a fleeting moment of depth, where they question their own or other characters’ extreme behaviour, wondering if they’ve gone too far. One wishes however, that Rachel had really leaned in to the absurd potential of the script, and take her ideas further still to truly create shock value or fully satirise the crisis as a whole.

In addition, considering that this is a heist play, certain key elements feel dubiously missing. Perhaps these are intentional, to subvert the genre and poke fun at climate terrorists, but seeing how disorganised the club is, coming up with a haphazard plan without clearly explaining it first, and the actual heist itself being rather simple with few obstacles, with an A-team that have no clear roles, leads to a rather unsatisfying central plot line. Juliana Kassim Chan and Shahid Nasheer play almost interchangeable, bumbling sidekicks, while Pei Shan herself is rather confusingly written, owing in part to the almost preachy, self-righteous character she seems to be, making it hard to sympathise or champion her goals with her maniacal methods.

Most surprising of all is how everything resolves on a rushed, sudden cliffhanger that comes from out of the blue, giving little room and no chance for resolution for any of the characters. Perhaps it aligns with exactly how morally questionable most of the characters are – that the world deserves to burn if everyone is truly as awful as the play seems to depict them as, and that there is no happy nor satisfactory end in a world filled with such people who will always put themselves first, and never do the right thing.

In all, The Thieves would have been a much stronger, more taut play if it was subject to more stringent edits and a more focused idea of what it wants to bring across. While the plot does continually move forward, there is plenty of fat that can be trimmed, in its attempt to ape a heist story but twisting it in too many directions that loses the plot altogether. In many ways, it would ideally work well as a fringe-type play that capitalises on its absurd concept, either embracing the chaos or controlling it more to really home in on the potential black comedy of the climate crisis.

What we are instead left with is a familiar species of early career play – one that tries to show off variety and a degree of edginess, but ends up overly ambitious and trying to hit too many notes at the same time. Rachel is clearly a person with interesting ideas, and one hopes she continues to refine her craft, perhaps even continue with future drafts and reworks of The Thieves if she so wishes. For now, The Thieves remains a bold and valiant outing for her, that will serve as her foundation towards better things to come.

Photo Credit: Toy Factory Productions

The Thieves plays from 15th to 17th September, Anthropocene from 22nd to 24th September, and The Prisoner from 29th September to 1st October 2023, all at Gateway Theatre Black Box. Tickets available here, to both individual shows and as a bundle.

Production Credits:

Director & Mentor: Jeffrey Tan Playwright: Rachel Chin Cast: Misha Paule Tan, Sharon Mah, Belle, Juliana Kassim Chan, Joel Low, Shahid Nasheer Festival Designer (Lighting & Set): Tai Zi Feng Sound Designer: Lim Ming Ying Projection Designer: Matthew Sonnenfeld Production Manager: Othman M. Yusof Stage Manager: D Melati Assistant Stage Manager: Xena Gooi Ci Xian Stage Crew: H. Anaqi