“I was apprehensive. I did not know how my mother would react.”
Mark Ng, director of testimonial theatre piece “Let’s Get Back Together,” held the first run in September 2014. After inviting his mother to the last show of that run, he dedicated the entire play to her at the end of the performance.
Then Ng came out to his mother.
“I’ll be proud of you no matter who you are, or what you are,” she told her son.
“I was so happy to hear that from her. There are no words to describe it,” said the 24-year-old student.
“To have her affirm my work, my identity as a person, just made me very happy, and now we can finally be able to talk about these things more openly, more easily. Which is a big step forward for my family.”
Ng is currently studying drama in London, and came back to Singapore to direct the second run of “Let’s Get Back Together” for Wild Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival this July.
Over 50 interviews conducted for the play
If you haven’t caught on yet, the title “Let’s Get Back Together” is a play on the initials, which form LGBT, which also stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. It consists of stories, anecdotes, excerpts from books and online media, and other LGBT-related experiences.
“We interviewed over 50 people,” said Ng, “and that’s not including the online posts, book excerpts and other related information that’s not from interviews.”
Many of the stories are from prominent LGBT figures and activists, like Ivan Heng.
“He wrote this post on Facebook after he got married to his partner,” said Ng about Heng, “so we asked for permission to take an excerpt from his post. He was more than happy to let us do so.”
Other famous figures include popular drag queens Becca D’Bus and MiStevious, as well as Reverend Miak Siew of Free Community Church, and Reverend Yap Kim Hao, one of the oldest pastors in Singapore.
Anecdotes include a straight girl’s struggle between her Christian faith and having LGBT friends, a Muslim man who tries to find peace between his faith and sexuality, and a mother’s thoughts on her two gay sons.
Genesis of “Let’s Get Back Together”
The idea was born one night when Ng and his two friends were talking about LGBT rights and other issues.
“It came up as a result of things that had been happening at the time, when there was a lot of tension between conservatives and LGBT activists, all trying to get their say in what LGBT rights in should be in Singapore.”
He cited the National Library Board’s decision to remove “And Tango Makes Three” from its collection in 2014, a children’s book based on the true story of a pair of male penguins who raise a chick together, as one of the issue.
“Nobody knows what it’s really like for the common LGBT person in Singapore,” said the young director.
And thus, “Let’s Get Back Together” was conceived by the three friends.
That was in March 2014. From April to August that year, the trio interviewed people, compiled stories, and edited it all into one coherent theatre production which saw a run at the National Library.
Earlier this year, Wild Rice asked them to do the show as part of the Singapore Theatre Festival.
Aims of “Let’s Get Back Together”
“I think a lot of LGBT folk in Singapore have trouble taking that first step. And I hope that from me coming out to my own mum in front of other people, that can give other people the courage to also do the same thing to their parents, and to start talking about it,” said Ng.
He chose to came out at that point because he thought there was no better time to have a conversation with his mother about it.
“And after she had heard all those stories, from other LGBT people who had gone through so many struggles – it was an easier way to finally come out to her, since she had more understanding about what it is really like to be gay in Singapore.”
But what Ng ultimately hopes to achieve from the play is that people will start understanding and listening, something that’s lacking right now.
“There’s a lot of political tension, a lot of talk, a lot of things going on. But people, especially those who are not LGBT, are not aware of the real struggles that they face.”
“If we finally want a consensus, then people need to be understand and listen to each other.”
“Let’s Get Back Together” is produced by Red Pill Productions, which was founded by Ng and a group of passionate young theatre makers. It runs from 7 to 10 July at the LASALLE Flexible Performance Space as part of Wild Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival.
Tickets are available from Sistic.
This article was also published on Yahoo!
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