Drama BoxPulau UbinJune 1, 8.30pm

In The Middle Of The Water, part of Drama Box’s Under Ubin Night Skies festival, is a spare piece of storytelling that derives its material and power from its site-specific nature. 

Written and co-directed by Kok Heng Leun, with solo performer Chng Xin Xuan, it is that rare theatrical production that is firmly rooted in a particular physical and social geography. The only other theatre work so tied to a specific location is The Theatre Practice’s much-loved and restaged Four Horse Road. 

Kok first explored the story of Pulau Ubin and its inhabitants in the beautifully curated audio walking tour-cum-workshop that was part of Drama Box’s Ubin, made for the 2022 Singapore International Festival Of Arts programme. He seems to have learnt from that experience to both edit the performances and expand his scope. 

This work, part of the ambitious week-long festival Under Ubin Night Skies, takes audiences on a stroll through four locations on the island. At each stop, audiences sit on tiny portable stools to listen to Chng narrate fable-like tales. Dressed simply in cream-coloured loose-fitting shirt and pants, armed only with a lamp and later a dry leaf that serves multiple purposes, Chng evokes the charm and mood of storytellers of yore, sharing stories that signal morals and social mores at eventide. 

Kok’s script offers suggestive sketches. A three-legged tiger escaping white hunters on the mainland swims to Ubin for refuge. The granite of Ubin and Singapore bemoans its destruction at the hands of the British and others who dynamite it to build the city across the water. An old...