Rock The Boat

Increasingly experimental Mandarin theatre company Nine Years Theatre is collaborating with the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre to present the very novel production First Fleet. Instead of placing the audience in the auditorium, director Nelson Chia will have them seated on the stage around the actors .The play is inspired by Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker and other source materials on the transportation of convicts to Australia. Set in 1787, it tells the story of the First Fleet of the British Empire which set sail with a group of convicts to establish a penal colony in what is now known as Australia. Along the way, the Governor instructs one of his Lieutenants to rehearse a play with the convicts, with the belief that art might rehabilitate them. What follows is a story of hope, grit and redemption.

First Fleet runs at the Singapore Cultural Centre from July 18 to 21. Tickets from Sistic.