“Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.” Such was the way English author E.M. Forster wrote of the importance of using both head and heart in Howard’s End, to connect both critical thought and deep emotion that we can achieve the full potential of humanity itself.

Inspired by this quote and the works of Forster, brand new theatre production The Prose and the Passion makes its world premiere at the 2024 Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) this May. Co-created by theatre veterans Haresh Sharma and Chong Tze Chien, The Prose and the Passion becomes an E.M. Forster multiverse, linking his letters, his life, and his novels A Passage to India and Maurice, as multiple timelines converge and diverge, characters interact and we watch them consumed by loneliness of those who exist outside of the status quo.

“We embarked on this project a long time ago, maybe around 2022 where the SIFA team sat me down with Tze Chien asking if we could team up to work on something new together. So we talked, and the conversation flowed for about a year, as we brainstormed for what we could possibly make,” says Haresh. “One thing we kept coming back to was Forster’s work, and we talked about wanting to look at the idea of fictional characters and ‘real’ characters from books, and the idea of invention. A main frame of reference was Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, which took inspiration from Virginia Woolf the person, Mrs Dalloway the novel, and his own fictional characters, and The Prose and the Passion models itself somewhat after that.”

“Haresh and I go back a long way, even before SIFA approached us, and what we had was a conversation between friends and allowed the process to develop organically,” says Tze Chien, whose career as a theatremaker started out with The Necessary Stage, which Haresh co-founded. “We were meeting as two individual artists, two ex-colleagues, and two peers of different generations, rather than associating myself with The Finger Players or Haresh with The Necessary Stage. So to remove ourselves and put our personal stamp on the work, it marks a first in many ways, and we spent a lot of time negotiating our practice and style we brought to the table, and how they overlapped or diverged. Ultimately, it’s about serving and putting the work first, and giving the work what it needs to succeed.”

On the specific title for the work, Haresh explains the deeper context and storylines that resulted from it. “We wanted to call it Only Connect at first, but it was a bit abstract, and The Prose and the Passion opened up more possibilities of meaning and reading, to help frame the way people look at characters,” says Haresh. From there, not only was Forster a point of focus, but even the idea of unearthing forgotten histories in Singapore. “Singapore actually became one of the more popular Asian destinations for sex change operations in the ’70s and ’80s, and it was a time where transsexuals were recognised, genders on ICs could be changed more easily, and even legally married. So there’s a thread that’s loosely inspired by one of the first trans women in Singapore, and we’re connecting that to the same themes Forster was writing about a century ago.”

“At the heart of the work is finding the human stories, and what ties it all together is a framing device where we have a writer undergoing writer’s block. He conjures up Forster, and it starts off a conversation between writers of different time, generations and ethnicity, which then kickstarts the interweaving and connection between stories,” says Tze Chien. “A lot of it happens in the writer’s mind, and we’re exploring that strangeness of it all coming together, and considering the meta process of writing.”

Over the years of their careers, both Tze Chien and Haresh primarily started out known as playwrights, and have since dabbled in other aspects of theatre as well, primarily in directing. While officially taking on the role of director and writer respectively, the two talk about whether such titles are strict, or they remain more fluid in their process. “We change these boundaries according to what the work might need – it wasn’t a clear definition from the start, and it really was just about co-creating something together,” says Tze Chien. “There’s always a process of bouncing ideas off each other, and the boundaries become very blurred over the course of drafting and workshopping the script, where there’s so much input from everyone, before it goes into rewrites and incorporates other elements, from the actors to the blocking. It’s a back and forth process that is in constant dialogue.”

“In a way, having these titles makes sure that there is someone to specifically take responsibility for that aspect within the play. Tze Chien is right in that there’s a back-and-forth process, but when push comes to shove, there has to ultimately be someone who takes charge and decides the direction the script takes,” says Haresh. “The two of us haven’t worked together for about twenty years now, and there remains enough fluidity between roles that it’s not such a clean divide between director or playwright, but we’re definitely quite confident in calling it a collaborative effort as a whole. It’s important that we can be polite but honest with each other, where the friendship ensures that there is no sense of unease, versus how sometimes there’s this pressure to praise without criticism if you don’t personally know each other prior to the show, and it ends up as empty small talk.”

Speaking of the importance of connections, both Tze Chien and Haresh emphasise the need for open-mindedness and proper dialogue. “We do follow each other’s work, and I think that in theatre, there’s a lot to do with choosing who you actively make connections with. I can’t talk about my own practice without considering the influence TNS has had on it, and I think as you get older, it remains so important to find a few, or even just one friend you feel you can really connect with,” says Tze Chien. “It seems hard these days to make connections, where even this idea of the self, the divide between the professional self, the side you put on social media and your own inner life, but as artists, you do want to find people you can have proper conversations with, where you can find like-minded individuals in terms of values, but very different in other areas to continue growing and developing.”

“Sometimes you do think you have enough connections, but you always have to keep an open mind to new people and potential new conversations,” says Haresh. “There are so many people I would love to get in touch with, especially theatre people from the ’90s I’ve lost contact with, but were close to at some point. Sometimes it goes beyond professional connections, and just ensuring that you have a link, to reminisce over things in the past, while also making sure you have a way to invest in what’s ahead of you in the future, and welcome people into your life, whether from the past or new people, who can help you with that.”

Ultimately, what is the purpose behind The Prose and the Passion, and what’s in it for audiences? “Sometimes I feel that we’re all trying to push ourselves towards happiness, contentment and fulfilment, but we feel we are not the writers of our lives, where it’s almost as if someone else is in charge of it,” says Haresh. “But perhaps it’s about breaking it down, and finding fulfilment not only at the end, but in every chapter that comes out way.”

“We are constantly trying to rewrite our endings, and I believe this play could offer some insight into how we’re always trying to rewrite out own lives, trying to find out happy endings, and the work it takes towards building that narrative,” concludes Tze Chien. “When my life ends, I want it to end on a high note, but what exactly does that mean? That’s what we’re hoping to figure out, and how to get there, as we watch these characters doing that in the play.”

Photo Credit: Joseph Nair

The Prose and the Passion plays from 31st May to 2nd June 2024 at Victoria Theatre as part of the 2024 Singapore International Festival of Arts. Tickets available here

SIFA 2024: They Declare runs from 17th May to 2nd June 2024 across various venues. Tickets and full programme available here