One good Turn deserves a revival

WRITER-director Chong Tze Chien has always been adroit at creating the poetic, allusive allegory. And in the revival of Turn By Turn We Turn, a 2011 play that snagged two top awards at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, his gifts are seen in abundance.

Turn By Turn We Turn, whose pithy title is just the first of its many charms, depicts the fate and fortunes of a traditional hand-puppet troupe against the backdrop of the troubled politics of China from the 1920s to the present day.

Led by puppet master Bo Yuan (Ong Kian Sin), the eight-member troupe struggles against an ever-changing political landscape, from the rise of Communism and the Japanese Occupation, to the Cultural Revolution and the post-Mao era.