Russian masterpiece gets a Mandarin translation

IN recent months, multiple-award-winning theatre director Nelson Chia has been picking up discarded objects off the streets - broken window panes, damaged furniture, empty wine bottles - and incorporating them into the set of his upcoming play The Lower Depths.

"My actors refer to me as the karang guni man," Chia says with amusement.

For three years now, Chia has been taking some of the greatest works of Western literature and translating them into Mandarin. His productions of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men and Yasmina Reza's Art garnered raves from critics and audiences alike, not to mention awards.

Now the 43-year-old is turning to Maxim Gorky's Russian play about a group of social derelicts living off booze and pipe dreams. Seven actors, including Johnny Ng and Koh Wan Ching, play 15 characters who try to rise from their social swamp but frequently fail.

How resonant can Gorky's 1901 proletarian play be to the Singapore audience?

"Very," says Chia: "There is an underclass of Singaporeans who live from hand to mouth, day after day. Because we don't see them, as we would the homeless in other countries, so we forget they exist. But they're there and they need our help."

He adds: "I wanted to do this play in 2015, as it is Singapore's 50th anniversary. I see it as a time for celebration and a time to reflect."