Heartbreaking look at the struggles of artists

MANIFESTO is maddening, exasperating, energy-sapping and heartbreaking. But you have to see it. The play tries to encapsulate many of the struggles that artists in Singapore have faced in the past 70 or so years - from being labelled Communists and Marxists to general accusations of being arrogant, self-indulgent wastrels. Yet they persevere because, as they rightly put it, there aren't many other professions in this country that consistently question why society has to be the way it is.

The people behind the play know all about the struggle. Playwright Haresh Sharma and directors Alvin Tan and Kok Heng Leun have been through the worst of it: In 1994, Sharma and Tan were placed under suspicion by the authorities for allegedly practising a Marxist brand of political theatre. Kok was then working for their theatre company The Necessary Stage. Those accusations were later dropped - but not after a nightmarish period of interrogation.

Here, they have shaped a story that spans nearly a century. It begins when two women start a theatre company in 1963, the year when Chinese middle school riots broke out. It then moves to 2016 where a group of artists are trying to present art without state intervention. It then jumps backwards to 1986 where a few theatre practitioners are undergoing training overseas when they're accused of harbouring political motives - a scene similar to what actually happened to Sharma and Tan.

The play crisscrosses the past, present and future some more. New stories develop. Characters age and revise their beliefs. Some learn to fight differently, others stop fighting altogether. The existential inquiries recur: What is the role of the artist in society? What is her role in relation to the state? What is the best way to bring about much-needed changes (such as discrimination and bigotry) to society? What price might she have to pay for her beliefs?

With seven actors playing two dozen roles in several fleeting scenes, trying to immerse oneself in the drama proves somewhat futile. Oftentimes, the intense two-hour mental workout feels less drama than debate. Incidents come fast and furious to supply the characters new grist for the intellectual mill. One is held emotionally at bay - managing only sympathy at best.

The entire picture, replete with multimedia artworks outside the theatre, creates an extremely complex picture of what it means to be an artist - maddening, exasperating, energy-sapping and heartbreaking. This play may be more personal than anything Sharma, Tan and Kok have ever done. It is the sum of hard lessons learnt, heartaches endured. Its soul weeps without end.