This April, The Theatre Practice (Practice) proudly presents The Last Gardener by performer, theatremaker and Practice associate artist Isabella Chiam. A compelling mix of heart and humour, the one-woman show is a tender portrayal of the maddening, beautifully complex relationship between parent and child.

The first edition of The Last Gardener was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of Practice’s It’s Not About The Numbers series, where it received rave reviews. Staged as a gardening workshop for up to two audiences, the work was partially inspired by Chiam’s own interest in gardening, which developed during the pandemic lockdown. Beyond the therapeutic effects of gardening, it also triggered a shift in her relationship with her father – also an avid gardener. “We started having conversations about plants in a way that we never did before!”

The production was also inspired by the story of Abu Ward, also known as the Last Gardener of Aleppo, who cultivated vibrant flowers and plants in the besieged city during the Syrian war. His young son, Ibrahim worked alongside him and continued maintaining the garden centre after his father was killed in a bomb strike.

Musing on the idea of legacy and inheritance in parent-child relationships, Chiam reflects, “Abu Ward’s story is not just about gardening and nature flourishing in a crazy time. It’s also about having hope and passing that hope to the next generation. There is a Greek proverb: ‘A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.’ What seeds are being planted for us, in us by our parents? What do we carry with us that came from them?”

“When my dad lost my grandmother, I suddenly saw him as a child of a mother. In some ways, the play is also me preparing myself for the eventual loss of my parents, and understanding what they have left behind that will help me move forward with strength and hope,” Chiam adds.

For the next stage of The Last Gardener’s development, Chiam has been given the opportunity to scale up for a larger black box setting, transforming it from an intimate interactive workshop into a text-based monodrama. Centred around the protagonist Eve (also played by Chiam), it explores her life changes from young adult to motherhood and her relationship with her father and son, through the metaphor of gardening.

The change in format has also meant large changes to the script. “The first version was structured to allow space for participants to fill in their own stories, which also intersected with two plot lines: the narrator’s relationship with her father, and a retelling of Abu Ward’s story,” explained Chiam. “A monodrama is much more character-driven so it needed a clearer narrative structure. We ended up cutting a lot of material from the original script to put focus on the central character’s emotional journey instead.”

Joining Chiam on this monumental task are two new additions to her core creative team — director Tan Shou Chen (Joel Tan’s Mosaic [Esplanade The Studios 2023], Henry Purcell’s Dido [The Opera People]) and co-writer Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips (A Literary Trail of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve, A Grand Design [Checkpoint Theatre]). “I don’t want to be alone, it’s not fun!” says Chiam. “Having them in the process gives me a sense of distance, so that I can look at the work from a more objective point of view and see it as a piece of storytelling rather than being tied to me as a person. Secondly, they also provide perspective and resonance because each of them relate to the story in different ways.”

“As a writer and poet, Cheyenne is able to articulate certain things in such an elegant way that it really elevates the script. Meanwhile, I really like Shou Chen’s aesthetics as a director. Being an actor himself, he is also able to access the work differently so he brings a very good combination of skills to the team,” adds Chiam.

The Last Gardener is produced by Practice, as part of Chiam’s role as Practice’s Associate Artist. A prolific performer in the Singapore theatre industry, Chiam has appeared in countless productions including Four Horse Road (The Theatre Practice), The Fourth Trimester, Brown Boys Don’t Tell Jokes (Checkpoint Theatre) and Oo-Woo (The Necessary Stage). She has also directed numerous Theatre For Young Audiences (TYA) productions (Here Comes Kaya & Roti! “Where Are Our Friends?” (2020, 2021) [The Theatre Practice], Oddsocks [Gateway Theatre], Together [Playtime]), and assistant directed two editions of Practice’s epic promenade theatre epic, Four Horse Road (2020, 2023).

She was invited to join the Practice Associate Artist Programme in 2020 and has been with the programme ever since. The Last Gardener marks a key milestone in her art-making career — both as her first solo performance and first original non-TYA work.

Citing the show’s long, multi-stage development period, Practice’s artistic director Kuo Jian Hong reflects on the company’s partnership for its Associate Artists. “What we look for in an associate artist is a hunger to develop their own works and an interest in collaborative artistic processes,” explains Kuo. “Unlike many associate artist programmes, we do not require yearly output, demand exclusivity nor prescribe a specific development process. What’s most important is that there is a relationship of mutual growth and learning. The Last Gardener is a culmination of Isabella’s growth as a performer and an art-maker, and our team has also learnt a lot from being a part of its development process. We’re growing together, and growing each other!”

The Last Gardener plays from 10th to 14th April 2024 at Practice Space. Tickets available on BookMyShow