Amidst even the most brutal of wars, there exists the possibility of love that can be kindled. That’s the central plot point at the heart of Noor Effendy Ibrahim’s Motherland, where two unknown soldiers on opposing sides of a violent war find themselves in love. Unable to do anything beyond hugging tightly at the border, how does one then navigate loyalty to one’s country and the one you love?

First shown as a work-in-progress at Centre 42 and Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA)’s Headlines Act / SIFA-X 2023, Motherland makes its full-length premiere at the 2024 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival later this month, and features Effendy as writer/director (under his moniker Very Shy Gurl), and starring performers Bada Jabari, Irfan Kasban, and Mish’aal.

Speaking to Effendy, he explains how much change the work has undergone since the work-in-progress. “Back then, that was just a dramatic reading, and the script was only about half an hour long,” he says. “We’ve expanded it significantly from there, and it does very much feel like a new piece. Even then, I still see it as a work-in-progress with more to be developed, and it’s essentially a response to the many things that are happening all around us.”

With the subject matter being war, Effendy admits that while he has never experienced the subject firsthand, he has been sensitive to putting the voice of soldiers and those caught in war in his play. “I know I can never speak on behalf of them, so this work in part also ends up being autobiographical, where it examines the waking nightmare of being unable to authentically do justice to these people,” he says. “I do recognise that being in a peaceful country, it’s a position of privilege, and so I have to review and reflect on my position as an outsider, where I do have the luxury and privilege to examine and interrogate such issues.”

“That in itself leads to the consideration of guilt, sorrow and rage I feel as an outsider, and how helpless and paralysing it can feel to almost be complicit by being unable to help,” he adds. “There’s also an overt queerness in the play, and I see this idea stem from the masculinity present in combatants, soldiers and violence as a whole, which also extends from my own ongoing performance research into tenderness and violence. At the same time, gender is very fluid within the piece itself, it’s just that it becomes easier to articulate violence through this male lens, hence the male performers.”

While the three actors are male, Motherland also features vocals by Rosemainy Buang, and its title itself seems to suggest an element of femininity amidst all the masculine. “It was a challenge to make the feminine so present, because there is such an absence of it in the script physically,” says Effendy. “So we had to bring out this innate sense of maternal care and affection and concern, alongside the paternalistic aspects. I hope the audience questions why the vocals are female, and it leads to some degree of reflection on the lack of naturalism and the surrealism within the play itself, where the feminine is located elsewhere instead of the obvious.”

Effendy hints that the work itself will adopt a non-linear flow, where much of it will be open to interpretation as opposed to a straightforward star-crossed lovers narrative. “It’s very open, with flashbacks and storytelling and conversations and plenty of tension in a very charged performance space, where we discuss violence and tenderness and struggle,” says Effendy. “I hope that all of it begins to blur when you start watching it, but you end up thinking about your view as the outsider and all this internal turmoil that you might be undergoing, where we are forced to consider our position as global citizen, and how we’ve demarcated our own alliances and power and self via artificial political boundaries, the morality of ethics and consciousness.”

Motherland of course, also comes on the heels of tenuous real world wars still taking place even today, from the Russo-Ukraine war, to the Israel-Palestine conflict that continue to rage, claiming an increasing number of victims each day. “Despite history being available as learning points for us, there are so many of us today that have still never experienced war in real time, and not in person, and how our access to it is via the lens of social media and news channels,” says Effendy. “It can be overwhelming, where you start to feel fatigued and hopeless and need a time out to anchor yourself. It begins to form a vicious cycle of how do we get out of it, or how can we help, and from there, how we to carry on living with all the burden of guilt.”

Effendy’s work may often be esoteric, and require a degree of interpretation on the audience’s part, but what is clear is that it always leaves a strong sense of resonance, and a visceral emotional impact through its execution. “In making art, I feel myself getting older, and I do wonder how we can sustain the entire ecosystem with both emerging artists and mid-career artists and senior artists,” he says. “It’s getting very difficult for some of us, and opportunities are getting harder to come by, especially for an independent artist like myself. I do feel the amount of space getting smaller each year, from expenses to the rarity of commissions. I can sustain myself via my full-time job, but that’s still separate from making the work I want to make, and I’m lucky if I can even do one production in a year.”

While the struggle is real, Effendy is thankful that the Fringe has given him the chance to present such a work, and in light of the festival’s overall theme of care and concern for pertinent issues, Effendy considers what we as Singaporeans might want to care more about. “Singaporeans can seem disinclined to the marginalised and the oppressed, blind to otherness and differences because of our narrative of one-ness, which threatens the beauty of diversity,” he says “It’s difficult for citizens to latch onto something of a cause or belief as a result.”

“The reality of living here is that we are focused so much on ensuring we have enough money to retire, and I’m reaching that age very soon,” he says. “That is such a distraction for all of us, that prevents us from caring about something else passionately, because we’re constantly considering survival first before having that space and luxury to care. It’s not anyone’s fault that we’re like this, but for those who can afford to, I hope they can commit to what they’re passionate about, and even if not, to help those who are unable to.”

Photo Credit: Created by Mish’aal with Midjourney

Motherland plays from 18th to 20th January 2024 at Practice Space, The Theatre Practice. Tickets available here

M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 runs from 17th to 28th January 2024 across various venues. Full line-up available here, with tickets available from BookMyShow