International Work
The Necessary Stage is committed to international exchange and networking between Singapore and other countries. Such exchange is done through staging the company's plays abroad, inviting foreign works to be presented by the company in Singapore, as well as through dialogues, workshops and training opportunities. To date, the company has performed in Berlin, Birmingham, Busan, Cairo, Dublin, Glasgow, Kuala Lumpur, London, Macau, Melbourne, New Delhi, Seoul, Sibiu, Sziget, Taipei and Tokyo. Resident Playwright Haresh Sharma also participated in a collaboration among Southeast Asian theatres, spearheaded by Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo, Japan, which culminated in a production in 2005.
The Necessary Stage's Resident Playwright Haresh Sharma was one of four international playwrights commissioned by the Glasgow-based 7:84 Theatre Company to write a play on the theme of Separation and Reconciliation (as part of the celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland and England and the Scottish Elections).
Sharma's play, Eclipse, is about the Indian/Pakistan partition as told by a young Singaporean man who is making a trip to his father’s homeland in Pakistan. The play saw its world premiere on 11 April 2007, at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and subsequently toured to various theatres in Scotland, including the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Eclipse made its way back to Singapore for its Asian premiere as a full-length play as part of the 2008 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.
The Virgin Labfest in Manila is a festival of new plays by emerging and well-known playwrights, directors and actors. It held its third edition from 28 June to 8 July 2007 at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, and featured Haresh Sharma's Lizard as part of its International Night line-up, alongside a triple-bill featuring two other plays by Thai and Japanese playwrights. Lizard, originally presented by The Necessary Stage in 1996, tells the story of a dysfunctional family involving a mother, son and maid. For the Manila staging, it was directed by Nicolas Pichay, and showcased a surreal and inertly violent depiction of a Singaporean household whose scheming, double-dealing, and at times cruel transactions negotiated with each other makes for a rather intense sala-set drama.
The theatre company's recent main season productions, Good People, Gemuk Girls and "Model Citizens" toured to Kuala Lumpur in May 2008, December 2008 and January 2011 respectively.
The Necessary Stage is also committed to exploring international collaborations. Recent collaborations include "Mobile" (a creative collaboration involving talents from Japan, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, as part of the Singapore Arts Festival, and which toured to Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo thereafter), "Past Caring" (a collaoration with Australia's Tony Yap Company) and "Sofaman" (a collaboration with Russia's The KnAM Theatre, which premiered in Singapore before traveling to Khabarovsk for a presentation in Russia).
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