Origin

By Mark Nicodemus Tan
Date & Time
Location
Fri 6 & 13 Jan 2023, 7:00pm & 8:15pm
109 Desker Rd
109 Desker Rd

About

This site-specific piece will be performed through music, dance, poetry and theatre at various stops in the Little India district. A pair of dancers and a pair of percussionists will bring to life mythical characters as well as explore metaphysical binaries ubiquitous in myth.

Southeast Asian performance art has historically presented stories such as the Ramayana or Mahabharata in dance, music and puppetry. These epics can also be seen represented in sculpture or reliefs. The artist seeks to continue the timeless tradition of reinterpreting these and other stories in a contemporary setting and allowing them to reshape the way we view Little India.

Through the telling, retelling and recreation of myth through various performance modes, this piece aims to examine the role of narratives and stories in the placemaking of Little India and Singapore. The performance is framed with the dancers and musicians performing in pairs, enabling dialogue and conversations between classical and contemporary forms.

Mark Nicodemus Tan

Mark is a musician, performer, composer and writer and has worked across various classical and contemporary stages in those roles.

With his collective The MadHatter Project, he won the Noise Singapore Award 2015, under which he wrote his first full-length multi-disciplinary production For The Time Being in 2017. Sarong Party followed in 2019, commissioned by the Singapore Bicentennial and Yale-NUS, in partnership with LASALLE College of the Arts.


August Lum



Through the use of timbre, harmony and texture, storytelling and mood-painting is a central part of August’s approach to music.

2022 has been a fruitful year for August, contributing to the performance tour Katong Dreaming, writing music for shows on Halloween Horror Nights 10, scoring the third season of Downstairs, reinterpreting nursery rhymes for The Theatre Practice’s third instalment of its Nursery Rhymes Project, music-directing TCR’s annual xinyao concert to a large crowd at Our Tampines Hub stadium.


Chloe Chua E-Shyan



Chloe is an intuitive and versatile performer and theatre-maker. A graduate of LASALLE College of the Arts’ BA(Hons) Musical Theatre programme, she was also a proud recipient of the Future Leader and Veda Mekani Performing Arts scholarships during her time there.

As an actor, Chloe possesses a naturally magnetic presence. Whether on-stage or on-screen, she is committed to the full embodiment of her characters, as well as bringing out the best in her co-actors. She is chuffed to be a part of this one-of-a-kind production and hopes that the audiences of Origin enjoy exploring Little India as much as she has.


Ines Estela



Through a strong literary upbringing, Ines is a quirky artist, passionate about raising awareness for communities and issues they believe in.

They are currently studying at LASALLE College of the Arts’ Diploma in Performance programme. Aside from performance, they also have worked professionally behind the scenes as an assistant stage manager and crew member. They wish to challenge ideologies through various artistic mediums and to always bring the best to their work. Currently, they are exploring movements. In their free time, you can find them reading Japanese literature, swimming in the rain, or listening to good old 80s music.

Special thanks to Betel Box Tours
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