Supported by

Official Hair and Make Up

Production Team

Richard Chua Producer

Tan Suet Lee Playwright

Yeo Hon Beng Director

Yeo Hon Beng / Tan Ching Ting Production Manager

Yeo Hon Beng Lighting / Set / Prop Designer

ANDRASTE Costume Design

Tan Ching Ting Stage Manager

Chan Mei Yi Narisa Crew

LEE FOUNDATION Official Videographer

Acknowledgements

938live Jennifer Lim Lim Eng Kiat Lisa Marie Lip

Programme Card designed by YongCheng

behance.net/yongcheng-low ynchello@gmail.com

William Phuan Dean LundquistStephanie PhangDrayton Alexander Hiers

Teo Kai Lin Crew

Chang Hai Wen Crew

Anathapindika Crew

Criscillia Tan Yan Teen Crew

Mao Yi Wei Crew

Kania Alisjahbana Crew / FOH

Hermosa Tan Wei Teng FOH (30th & 31th)

Celine Lin Pei Shan FOH (30th & 31th)

present

IAN CHIONH GILLIAN TAN ANDREW CHOO VARSHINI

playwright TAN SUET LEE director YEO HON BENG

Synopsis of the Play

Playing for high stakes in a game where the lines of virtual and reality blur, this wildly imaginative, sexy, heart-breaking play asks:In the game of love, what are you willing to give up?Before his accident Lawrence and Mary played volleyball by the beach and took cycling trips in England. Now he spends all

Summary of Cast Bios

Playwright’s Message

After the staging of my play Sperm almost seven years ago, I knew I wanted my next play to continue exploring the complexity of relationships and how we form and reform them to make them better. I initially thought of writing about couples swinging, to better understand the difference between physical and emotional relationships, but I struggled to find the right story. It was only later, as the internet became more pervasive, and reports abounded of cyber cheating that I found the story of Mary and Lawrence. But it took the deadlines set by Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Page2Stage and the encouragement of David Henry Hwang to translate the idea into words on a page. After several drafts, readings were held in Singapore (Dec 2012, LoNyLa and Platform 65) and London (Dec 2013, BEAA Creative Hub). The journey of bringing A Second Life to the stage hasn’t been easy. There have been many false starts, dead ends, procrastination and much hair-pulling. However, I consider myself lucky because along the way I have been supported by fellow playwrights (you know who you are), directors, and actors. Without their generosity, talent and community spirit, you would not be watching this play tonight. I thank them all.

About Little Red Shop

Little Red Shop works collaboratively with different theatre artists in Singapore. The company is keenly interested in exploring intimate theatre, a way of working that not only makes theatre more mobile, and also closer to the audience, both intellectually and emotionally. Many of its small and intimate works have travelled to different cities: New York, Taiwan, Hong

Gillian Tan

As a full-time actor, emcee, singer, songwriter & drama trainer, Gillian believes in constantly learning. Besides having appeared on RTM (Malaysia), Syfy (USA) and all MediaCorp Singapore channels (including Vasantham, CNA and Toggle), she has embraced many meaningful opportunities to tread the boards from Elagovan's Oh!, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Action Theatre) and the children's musical, Rainbow Fish (i Theatre), to Wisdom of Monkey's All The Crazy People (directed by her dear friend Hemang Yadav). She also recently performed an original song showcase entitled Stuck In A Jam at the Singapore Writers Festival 2014. Gillian appreciates the family and friends she is so blessed to have, a variety of films, heartfelt art, unusual dreams, ice-cream, & the loving memory of her late father. Please keep in touch with her at facebook.com/t.jill and gilliantan.tv.

Varshini

Varshini was most recently seen as one of the Flames in HuM Theatre’s production of Nagamandala during Kalaa Utsavam, Indian Festival of Arts and has also portrayed “Ruth” in Blithe Spirit, “Helen” in Baby with the Bathwater, “Sophie” in The Star Spangled Girl, the feisty “Mimi Labonq” in ‘Allo ‘Allo and “Cinderella” in Cinderella: A Pantomime. Varshini was a co-lead in feature film True Love, which was picked up for the Queens International Film Festival in 2013. She was also part of the recent Julie’s Biscuits advertorial campaign, “The Best of You” in Singapore and Malaysia. Varshini has been training with Mr Kamil Haque (Method acting) and with Dr Jane Gilmer (Chekhov technique) at HCAC. She is delighted to be working with a wonderfully talented cast & crew in Little Red Shop’s production of A Second Life and cannot wait to share it with all of you!

Andrew Choo

Andrew has dabbled in theatre on and off since the early 2000s, working with companies such as Theatreworks, Action Theatre, The Necessary Stage and Touch Arts. He has also been involved in production and stage management, working for Story Theatre and for over ten years with STAGES and their show Chestnuts, Singapore’s longest parody show. Outside of theatre, Andrew has planned, managed and supervised shows, events, competitions, trips, and festivals for Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Despite his heavy schedule he also finds time to participate in his church's productions and musicals, where he got his first taste of performing in a musical. Since then he has not looked back and always seeks to do his best in whatever theatre production he is in.

Ian Chionh

Ian has been involved in the production of various plays in Singapore since 2012, usually as a musician or a sound designer. He was the musician in Arabian Nights, Gruesome Playground Injuries and played the role of the cafe pianist in Allo Allo. Orther than that, Ian has also sung in various musical appreciation shows presented by Library @ Esplanade and dinner theatre hosted in private clubs. Ian was very drawn to the script of A Second Life and he is very honoured to make his acting debut as a leading character in this highly intimate and stirring composition.

Tan Suet Lee, the playwright Before becoming a playwright, Suet Lee practised as a chartered accountant. Since making the switch, she has written eleven plays including: The Swing (2013), A Second Life (2012), Lies in Waiting (2011), Sperm (2008) by Magdalena (Singapore) at the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival, A Beautiful Companion (2006) and Shopping with Ang (2004) by Yellow Earth Theatre

Yeo Hong Beng, the director A graduate from NUS Sociology and Theatre Studies, Hon Beng has spent the last eighteen years of his professional career soaking up varied roles in theatre, film and entertainment. He has worked extensively with a number of arts groups.Currently a freelance theatre practitioner, Beng is active in directing, lighting and set design, publicity design work, production, and technical and stage management. Beng also conducts lessons

Director’s Message We are passionately fatigued.We excavate the secrets of loving: sacred yet dark; sacrificial yet depraved; sensible yet disturbed; private yet exploratory; sensual yet clinical, rational yet marginal, precious yet bane; simple yet complex.We. Playwright, cast, production team and you the audience. We are all part of this laborious loving that replenishes and drains us. Some of us feel it, miss it, disdain it, ignores it, attract it, think it, etc. We create love.Fortunately we love to create too. Thus we are all here partaking the debut of Suet Lee’s immaculately divine sensitivity.Grateful to be entrusted to wrestle the art with an uncompromising yet accommodating team. Agreeing to disagree, we are honestly savage in the process of enlivening this work of love. We thank you.

Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia. The fringe theatres in these cities never failed to inspire the creative team. Works that have travelled there have also generated discourse, to which as a intellectual theatre company, it enjoys immensely. Little Red Shop serves as the secretariat of an Asian online performing arts magazine theatrex Asia (http://www.theatrex.asia).

his time online as a samurai warrior and she struggles to cook the perfect chicken.When Mary discovers he is having an affair with an avatar called Louella, she enlists Adam, Lawrence’s best friend, to split the couple up. Mary’s quest to win Lawrence back results in losses beyond her imagination.

I’m also grateful to Richard for his unwavering commitment to the production, to Hon Beng for being resourceful, and directing with such vision, and to the actors, Gillian, Ian, Varshini and Andrew who have my utmost respect for their talent, professionalism and courage. Relationships are like patterns in a kaleidoscope. Each made up of tiny pieces of coloured shards that shift and reconfigure with each turn of life. Patterns are created and destroyed and we struggle to keep up with the endless dance. As Lawrence retreats into the designed perfection of the virtual world, the play asks if reality can still compete, and what infidelity means in the digital age. However, at the heart of the play is an old fashioned story of two people lost and afraid, stumbling from one misstep to another, trying to hold on to the threads of their love. Finally, being a playwright can be a miserable business, often you find yourself stuck in front of a screen with nothing to say. I’ve wanted to give up many times. But I haven’t. For this I have my husband to thank. Despite my threats “to give it all up and become a yoga instructor,” he has always encouraged me to push through, be patient, and be fearless in my writing. For now, the yoga will have to wait.

(YET) at the Typhoon 3: International East Asian Playreading Festival. With the support of the Singapore National Arts Council (NAC), Suet Lee attended the La MaMa International Playwright Retreat in Umbria, Italy in August 2013 where she developed The Swing. A reading of The Swing was presented at La MaMa, New York in January 2014.

and workshops in various schools and tertiary institutions such as NUS, NAFA, and the Republic Polytechnic.Active in socio-community work, Beng has been involved with various charity organizations and has been a committed designer for A Nation In Concert.To encourage and provide a platform for local and international emerging artists, Beng has been curating and exhibiting their art works at his exhibition space Detention Barracks.

littleredshopasia richard@littleredshop.org