Can happiness be measured as a KPI? Will a father’s grief be assuaged by an impassive cyborg? Is there love after loss? Join us in exploring these real and fictional stories investigating the quality of life in a series of fresh and provocative works-in-progress by the participants of The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre Workshop Showcase 2025. The showcase runs from 6 to 7 December 2025 at the Drama Centre Black Box.

From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre Workshop is a new series launched this year as part of TNS’ Devising Platform series. It saw 14 creatives from a diverse range of performing arts backgrounds come together in an intensive nine-month workshop designed to encourage collaborative theatre-making processes through the company’s forum theatre-making and devising methodology. Helmed by TNS’ Artistic Director Alvin Tan, with Associate Artist A Yagnya as Assistant Facilitator, this workshop aims to nurture the creation of socially-engaged works in the theatre that present multiple interrelated perspectives.

Over an intensive three-month period of lectures and clinics led by a diverse range of established theatre practitioners, participants had the opportunity to explore various elements in theatre-making including directing, dramaturgy, lighting, and sound design, as well as producing. From there, the creatives further honed their newfound skills and interests into collaboratively creating three new works-in-progress for a further six months, with the support of Alvin, Yagnya, and TNS’ associate artists. Whilst the participants were free to choose the topics of exploration in their respective groups, Alvin and Yagnya note that a throughline evident in all three works-in-progress is that of the quality of life in Singapore and “a variety of disturbances framed by varying degrees of power differentials between those in power and those who may be less powerful, marginalised, disenfranchised, marginalised or vulnerable”.

As Alvin and Yagnya mused, “Perhaps it is due to the programme starting with forum theatre that focuses on the dynamics of the oppressor and the oppressed. Perhaps the participants are confronting the challenges of a very grey reality plagued with disinformation, misinformation, post-truth, a world filled with contradictions, double standards, a world that has pivoted with its moral compass gone into disarray.”

On Saturday, 6 December, the 3pm show presents You Made Me Feel Like This Would Last Forever by Eugene Chow. A father is unable to move on from the sudden death of his daughter, suspended in a purgatorial space of frustration and regret. The delightfully quirky therapy Cyborg is assigned to help Father grieve and heal. Despite the Cyborg’s quiet and persistent care, Father is stuck in an abyss of grief, trapped in never-ending cycles of implosion. Father takes us on a surreal journey marked by his grief and the loss of his parental identity, of love that is both ephemeral and enduring, but not eternal. What happens when fragments of the past begin to surface, as the uneasy relationship between Father and Cyborg start to unravel? StarsNah Jieying, Nur Aliff Bin Kamaruddin, Lim Ci Xuan and Kaelen Ong.

At the 8pm show, look out for And Then, Love . Directed by Tejas V Hirah, with head writer Elizabeth Samosir and assistant playwright Chrisdale Allison Tay, with all three also starring, the play asks: ‘What does it mean to love yourself? What does it take to love someone else?’ Posed to family, friends, colleagues, and strangers, through laughter and tears, their tales of love and loss were crafted into a work of verbatim theatre that seeks to uncover responses from myriad perspectives In a world of growing conflict and dissonance. The team hopes to create a work that brings some clarity and hope, a safe space for all of us to reflect on what it means to love, wherever we may be in our own personal journeys.

Finally, at the Sunday 7 December 3pm show, look out for Suffiyan Mohamad’s A Life Well Led. Four pastel-clad committee members have gathered in a town hall. Their agenda: To assess whether Singaporeans have a life well led. You, the audience, will be invited to vote on how a series of fictional “case studies” drawn from everyday Singaporean lives perform against the new Living Index for Fulfilment and Efficiency (L.I.F.E.) metric. This index will guide future governmental policies based on what the audience agrees is “a life well led.” Will we be able to agree on what defines success and failure? Stars co-playwrights Fanny Kee, Jasmine Xie, Timothy Yeo, and Yane Tan.

On how the workshop has impacted their growth as an artist, participant Eugene Chow enthused, “The workshop has definitely added more to my toolbox for theatre creation. As an artist, I feel like I’m more socially aware of the politics of my creations, and the workshop has definitely pushed me to collaborate more with different kinds of artists.”

Having the space and support for a relatively long nine-month workshop process gave the artists a safe space to nurture a lateral level of collaboration, encouraging engagement with and exploration of social issues, as well as of each other’s ideological beliefs and artistic competencies. Participant Jasmine Xie is excited about the development of these ideas. She shares, “This project feels like a seed that’s begun to sprout brightly. The workshop process has been a fertile ground for exciting ideas, and each rehearsal has added.

Join TNS this December for these fresh and captivating stories at the From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre Workshop Showcase 2025. Whether you’re a seasoned theatre-goer or just curious, these stories by Singapore creatives will inspire and entertain.

From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre Workshop Showcase 2025 runs from 6th to 7th December 2025 at the Drama Centre Black Box. Tickets available from BookMyShow

This show is eligible for SG Culture Pass credits. Use your $100 SG Culture Pass credits from 1st September 2025 for ticket purchases. Visit sgculturepass.gov.sg for more information.