Passing on lessons of care and moving on through the humble act of gardening.

With limited land and government flats with strict rules, Singapore’s housing estates rarely allow for enough space or freedom to grow one’s own garden. As a result, those with a green thumb or a hankering for plants make do, placing tiny succulents along windowsills, or for those with bigger ambitions in mind, fill entire corridors with pots of exotic species, propagated from cuttings in the wild or ordered from specialty shops.

In much the same way we find ourselves making do to find a way to garden in Singapore, the same goes for the act of parenting, itself a type of gardening, raising human beings from children to adults, with no real guide or surefire methods for success. But unlike gardening, where one has the chance to make mistakes and multiple plants often die in the process of learning, when it comes to child rearing, there are no second chances, and children live with the mistakes of their parents. All this and more is covered in theatremaker and The Theatre Practice (Practice) Associate Artist Isabella Chiam’s monodrama The Last Gardener, which premiered this week.

Directed by Tan Shou Chen, The Last Gardener was a work that evolved from Practice’s It’s Not About The Numbers series, where Isabella presented it as a a gardening workshop for up to two audiences. Now, combining forces with co-writer Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips, The Last Gardener has been expanded into a full-length work, where surrounded by pots of plants left by her late father, a woman named Evie reflects on her own life growing up, and how her actions and perspectives have been shaped by her parents’ bringing her up.

Performed as a theatre-in-the-round, the set by Ong Guat Teng is simple, comprising a white doorframe leading into an imaginary HDB corridor space, filled on all sides by a variety of potted plants sourced from Katong Flower Shop, and a simple rattan chair. When it begins, Isabella steps through the frame, her hair tied up, and dressed in a simple white shirt and jeans, and white trainers. She is relaxed yet serious, pensive as she dives into her memories of this garden growing up, her father’s, and all the weight of the past it bears in its greenery.

All of this is told through a detailed, thorough history of Evie’s childhood and growth, and naturally, the garden and the plants becomes an overarching metaphor for life and all it encompasses. Growing up, the garden becomes a safe space of solace away from her parents’ arguments, while in her adulthood, her father’s gifts of plants to her and her attempts at keeping them alive seem representative of her own struggling relationship.

As an actor, Isabella takes a while to warm to the role, focusing primarily on the technicalities of the performance. To this end, she does especially well when it comes to having developed clear differences in character voices, so much that each time she swaps over to Evie’s aloof father, her chiding mother, or even her younger, innocent self, it is distinct and immediately recognizable. This is endearing, and for any audience member watching, many would likely see facets of their own parents in these characters.

What is lacking for most of the initial part of the play then is the emotional tug and pull necessary to draw us into the world, where there is much content to excavate and get through, where we are not yet close enough to Evie to warrant holding our attention as she retells these seemingly mundane moments in her adolescent years, occasionally peppering it with a few jokes, often at the expense of her boyfriend or father.

But when The Last Gardener hits its stride, that is when you fully become invested in the narrative of this stranger, who has somehow become a friend during this show. Now all grown up, Evie faces struggles that are all-too familiar – a husband that has grown distant, ageing parents, and what it takes to raise a young son, fearing that she makes the same mistakes her parents did with her.

In this section, The Last Gardener affords far more intimacy with the audience, recalling little moments where Evie speaks to her mother about whether she truly loves her father while sitting in front of the television to watch their favourite ‘princess shows’, with Faith Liu Yong Huay’s lighting dimmed to reflect that. We hear snippets of her father leaving voice notes for her (voiced by Julius Foo), each one a brief set of instructions on how to care for each plant he gives her over the years – a money plant, a succulent, and even a decorative ‘ZZ Plant’ (Zanzibar Gem). For Evie, her father, aloof as he may be, is a constant in her life, always a source of sound advice, sagely wisdom wrapped up in a gruff but well-meaning voice, a quintessentially Asian way of showing love.

These are the quiet but integral moments that really showcase Evie’s bond with her parents, in that understated way Asian families show their love. Both Isabella and director Tan Shou Chen seem to know this and understand the importance of these scenes, and you can finally hear the sincerity in her voice as she responds to the voice notes claiming ‘very easy one lah’, as she laughs along with her mother, a realness that fully showcases Evie as a fully-formed character with her insecurities and her warmth.

As the play approaches its end, the writing too ascends to its peak, with devastating descriptions of grief and the loss of a parent, coupled with exactly the right song to nail the complex emotions that come with it (Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’, and an on-the-nose but absolutely effective use of an atmospheric Coldplay song). At her lowest, Evie takes comfort in the garden once more, thinking of her father’s advice to be like a plant, and always reach for the sunlight, staying optimistic against all the darkness. All of these choices are reflective of both Isabella and Shou Chen’s vision for the play, making the work feel affecting and powerful in spite of its deceptively simple set up in a small space, able to navigate and play to audiences on all sides, and ultimately, strike at our emotional core.

Much like the last gardener of Aleppo, which the work was originally inspired by and takes its name from, The Last Gardener is a play about legacies, and what we leave behind in this world when we’re gone, and who inherits them. ‘The state of the garden tells you a lot about the person who owns it,’ says Evie over and over, as she thinks back to how she couldn’t find time to follow her parents back to their hometown in Ipoh, or wonders about how she could have better connected with them in life.

What she is left with is an orchid in bloom, the final voice note of her father teaching her the difficulty of caring for this one, no longer around to see the beauty that has emerged from all his hard work. In closing, the house lights come on, and taking a leaf from its origins as a workshop, Isabella hands out tiny plants to audience members, before passing on that knowledge of how to care for them, leaving them in what are hopefully better hands, before exiting the space, herself having left a legacy for us to carry on.

The Last Gardener isn’t perfect, requiring just a little more pruning and trimming to reach full bloom. This is a grounded, original, quintessentially Singaporean work that allows its performer to flower over its runtime, and leaving you with a coming-of-age story that’s all too relatable, one that we all already have or eventually have to deal with as time goes on. It may still be green, but with proper care and watering, this is a work that could prove to be a modern staple of Singaporean theatre, reminding you of the beauty and pain of growing up, and the ways in which we live on and make do with the lot that we have been given, in the hopes we sow the right seeds for the next generation.

Photo Credit: The Theatre Practice

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

Production Credits:

Director Tan Shou Chen Cast Isabella Chiam, Julius Foo (Voiceover) Script Isabella Chiam, Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips Set Designer Ong Guat Teng Junior Set Designer Jobelle Mok Lighting Designer Faith Liu Yong Huay Sound Designer Sandra Tay Script Translator Ng Mun Poh Producer Ronice Ho Technical Director Lee Bee Bee Production Manager Jesselyn Ng Stage Manager Eunice Yap Assistant Stage Manager Wong Yun Jie Lighting Programmer & Operator Marilyn Ang Sound Operator See Wei Hao Surtitle Operator Rachel Chin Production Crew Fizah Syafiq Misari Sharlene Lim