Floating Bones

Director: Elina Lim

Playwrights :

Floathouse 1001 by Han Lao Da

Dragon Bone by Quah Sy Ren

Translator: Jeremy Tiang

Starring: Lim Kay Siu

Bridget Lachica

Zachary Ibrahim

Bevin Ng

Elizabeth Sergeant Tan

Floating Bones consists of two one-act plays: Floathouse 1001 by Cultural Medallion-winner Han Lao Da, and Dragon Bone by Quah Sy Ren. These Chinese-language plays are accessible to English-speaking audiences for the first time thanks to award-winning translator Jeremy Tiang, in a production directed by Elina Lim (Bedok Reservoir).

Floathouse 1001 offers a glimpse of a dystopian future – Singapore, finding it has no land for its ageing population, places them in pods that are set adrift at sea. When the inhabitants of each pod die, it simply sinks to the ocean floor. Trapped in this enclosed space, three old people are driven half-mad – but what happens when the inhabitants of Floathouse 1001 decide to rebel?

Dragon Bone is a dream play, a collage of memories and impressions. A schoolboy attends his mother’s funeral; a refugee from a nameless land discovers that her lover is not who he seems; a train passenger finds himself seated next to a beautiful woman – but where are all these cockroaches coming from? As we journey through these fragmentary images, we are forced to ask whether we can trust the evidence of our senses and who, ultimately, we owe our loyalty to.

Floathouse 1001 was staged at Jubilee Hall in 1995, and Dragon Bone (as Boner) by Drama Box in 2002. As there have been no significant productions of either piece in over a decade, this is a much anticipated return to the Singaporean stage of two important plays, as well as their debut in English translation.

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