Projects – The Second Breakfast Company

The Paiseh Pieces

“The Paiseh Pieces is a thoroughly millennial musical, a songbook for the woes of adulting and the comforts of friendship.

It is a laudable debut outing and a jovial reminder to always – as the adulting trio say – “grab one’s life by the chicken nuggets”. “
– The Straits Times

“Along with solid performances and endearing chemistry from the cast, the work is crisp, full-hearted and satisfying to my senses— most definitely not a soggy fry.“
– harmonicstagebeams

★★★★☆
“Endearing in its almost makeshift quality, The Paiseh Pieces is a show that doesn’t need to try too hard to win you over, and succeeds as a reflection of this generation’s daily problems.“
– Bakchormeeboy

Just another day of pretending to be an adult.

Three besties on the precipice of adulthood find themselves in difficult situations. Tobias, a struggling theatre actor, can’t seem to catch a break. Rina dreams of a future bigger than her modest background. Meanwhile, Sara seems to have everything going for her, but is it all too good to be true? The trio navigate the pains of growing up in Singapore and along the way, find out what it takes to get their life together… or at least try to.

The Second Breakfast Company, in collaboration with Wisma Geylang Serai, presents a brand new pop rock musical about friendship, family and well, a little bit of french fries.

Book by: Adeeb Fazah
Music by: Bennett Bay
Lyrics by: Stephanie Phang

Cast:
Gail Belmonte
Kevin Brendan
Nadya Zaheer
Fiona Chua
Misha Paule Tan
Rino Junior John
Sharon Mah
Tan Rui Shan

Produced by: Denise Dolendo
Directed by: Adeeb Fazah
Music Director: Joanne Ho
Choreographer: Pat Jon Gregory
Dramaturg: Nabilah Said
Set Design: Petrina Dawn Tan (Doodle Productions)
Multimedia Design: M.Nurfadhli Jasni (Doodle Productions)
Lighting Design: Ian Pereira
Costume Design: Denise Dolendo
Trailer and Creative Assets by: Jon Tan (@jontan.co)
Photography by: Poh Yu Khing (@pyk.photos)

The Essential Playlist

★★★★☆
“With The Essential Playlist, 2BCo feels like they’ve found their voice at last, using their platform to represent the millennial perspective, their generation’s struggles and issues, and doing it so well.”
– Bakchormeeboy

“It is heartening to see a headlining spot at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, at a prime venue like the Esplanade Theatre Studio, given to a young theatre company.”
– The Straits Times

In post-COVID-19 times, a group of millennial comedy content creators hopes to seriously review and revamp their brand image to take on more social issues. Staggering teams in their rented office space, they pitch content ideas for a new series called The Essential Playlist, combining human feature vignettes, thought experiments and fictionalisations of real-world encounters of and with essential workers in Singapore.

In unravelling these (un)filtered stories, creative conflicts surface within the group: pandering to political correctness; recycling their established comic, satirical approach with insensitive portrayals; criticising intentions and blind spots of privilege. What edits and revisions will be accepted or rejected? Why does this advocacy matter to the team? How does any essential worker even stand to benefit from this entire exercise?

Playwrights: Zulfiqar Izzudin, Adeeb Fazah
Director: Adeeb Fazah
Lighting Designer: Ian Pereira
Sound Designer: Mark Benedict Cheong
Producers: Denise Dolendo, Kristine Ng
Production Stage Manager: Abel Chong

Cast:
Zulfiqar Izzudin
Kimberley Ng
Misha Paule Tan
Rino Junior John
Angeal Chong
Siti Zara Sophia

The Singapore Trilogy

The Singapore Trilogy

11 – 21 March 2021

Integrating story and text from Are You There, Singapore? (1974), One Year Back Home (1980) and Changi (1997), the three plays of Yeo’s Trilogy provoked much reflection about the staging of politics in a new nation forging its own identity and development.

Set across the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, The Singapore Trilogy follows the intertwining stories of two siblings and a close friend – Chye, Hua and Fernandez – first as international students in London before returning home to participate in Singapore politics with opposing ideologies. Between political detention and personal entanglements, wills and friendships are put to the test: what are we prepared to compromise for the sake of our ideals and loved ones?

This will be the first time all three plays of the Trilogy will be performed together in a single adaptation, including deleted scenes from original manuscripts, new writing and a revised ending in consultation with Robert Yeo.

Playwright: Robert Yeo

Director: Adeeb Fazah

Dramaturg: Nah Dominic

Set Designer: Beiyi Teo

Lighting Designer: Jim Chan

Sound Designer: Mark Benedict Cheong

Costume Designer: Denise Dolendo

Starring
Shrey Bhargava
Casidhe Ng
Ong Yi Xuan
Lim Shien Hian
Yuri D Hoffmann
Aricia Ng
Aiswarya Nair
Neina Goldberg

Review:

One of the strengths of the trilogy, courtesy of its third play, Changi, lies in its straight-up, sometimes harrowing dramatisation of the costs of detention without trial as a weapon against political activists, including the interrogation methods used to extract televised confessions of guilt. It is an experience that few other Singapore plays have delved into, among them Tan Tarn How’s more satirical Undercover (1996) and The Necessary Stage’s intergenerational drama on minority Malay political participation, Gemuk Girls (2006).

– Artsequator

The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye

The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye

Live Airplay: 30 October – 8 November 2020

On Demand: 9 – 18 November 2020

This series is a part of Night Spin 182.7FM, the festival radio station for Singapore Writers Festival 2020.

From uncertain tensions of a migrant family in Ang Mo Kio, school projects on Syrian refugees, a National Day Parade watch party, and the journey of a wounded migrant worker, these four narratives reflect the self’s desire for connection and belonging within a nexus of tenuous relations.

The Breakfast Station: Hook and Eye presents a radio play adaptation of four selected texts from Hook and Eye: Stories from the Margins (Ethos, 2018).

Supported by: The Arts House at The Old Parliament

Director: Adeeb Fazah

Adaptation by: Adeeb Fazah, Dominic Nah

Sound Design and Mix: Artwave Studio

Featured Artist: A Yagnya, Alyssa Lie, Jaisilan Sathiasilan, Krish Natarajan, Lynn Chia, Rino Junior John, Tysha Khan and Xie Shangbin

The Hawker

The Hawker

13 – 17 November 2019

Aliwal Arts Centre Multipurpose Hall

Stories of 9 different people from Singapore society converge in a hawker centre on its last day before closing down after 43 years to make way for redevelopment. With the nation fast progressing, what will it leave behind?

After a sold out first staging at the Asian Youth Theatre Festival 2018, The Second Breakfast Company’s first ever immersive work, The Hawker, is back again – bigger and better! Indulge your inner kaypohness and eavesdrop into the different conversations of this not-so-typical theatrical experience.

Featuring Lighting Design and Sound Design by ST Life! Theatre Awards nominees Woo E-hui and Vick Low, The Hawker is definitely not to be missed!

Get your tickets now for The Hawker and grab a snack too (if you’re hungry).

Directed by: Tan Hui Er

Assistant Director: Lynn Chia

Playwright: Aslam Shah

Lighting Design by: Woo E-hui

Sound Design by: Vick Low

Set Design by: Shawne Yzelman, Eve Irdina, Irfan Hadi and Samuel Chia

Performed and Devised by:

Dennis Sofian
Fadhil Daud
Hu Yuheng
Ivan Tan
Jaisilan Sathiasilan
Lynnie Cheong
Ong Yi Xuan
Rachel Yen
Val Teh

Reviews:

Time Out says 4 out of 5 Stars

For those unfamiliar with immersive theatre, it basically involves a production removing the stage and “immerse” audiences within the performance itself – offering a whole new perspective of the show. You’ve probably heard of NYC’s Sleep No More or Drunk Shakespeare. But it’s refreshing to see the concept tailored for the local audience – and judging by the turn out of the opening night, a clever move, too.
– Time Out Singapore

Performing Malay Sketches

7, 8, 10 March 2019

Arts House Play Den

Commissioned by The Arts House for Textures Festival 2019 (#BuySingLit)

Who is the Malay person in Singapore?

In this play-within-a-play, local theatre company, The Second Breakfast Company, brings Alfian Sa’at’s anthology of short stories, Malay Sketches, to the stage. Through stage enactments of sketches from the book, Performing Malay Sketches peels back the layers of this text exploring the question of how to construct and portray the Malay identity in Singapore – and how it is represented, perceived and celebrated.

Source Text Written by Alfian Sa’at

Playwrights: Mark Benedict Cheong and Adeeb Fazah

Director: Adeeb Fazah

Assistant Director and Sound Designer: Mark Benedict Cheong

Lighting Designer: Jim Chan

Producer: Denise Dolendo and Kristine Ng

Cast: Nur Sofihah, Muhammad Fauzi, Adeeb Fazah, Muhammad Hafidz, Hu Yuheng, Nisa Syarafana

Reviews:

‘Performing Malay Sketches’ Is A Play About Race S’pore Needs Today

Performing Malay Sketches also has lots of wacky humour that made the audience laugh out loud. Nisa Syarafana grabbed our attention with her excellent comedic timing as she shifts between the meek Mas and the more assertive characters that Mas plays. The tight directing and script also contribute to the almost seamless flow between the layers of the conceit, and much credit goes to Adeeb Fazah, who directed, co-wrote, and stars in two roles in the production.

– The Weekender

Metatheatrical examination of Malay representation onstage brims with potential.

The great thing about Performing Malay Sketches is its unabashed, sharp humour, making keen references to the local theatre scene that anyone in the know would likely chortle at, not to mention the observational, almost absurd social humour Alfian’s original texts themselves are chock full of. But even amidst the laughter, there is a strong dose of social commentary that leaves one uncomfortable at times with the hard truths brought to light… Humorous, piercing, and current, should The Second Breakfast Company ever receive a chance to revisit this piece in future, then by all means, we welcome it.

– Bakchormeeboy.com

The Old Woman and the Ox

15 – 17 November

Gateway Theatre Black Box

Tickets here.

‘The Old Woman and the Ox’ (2017) is a play written by 20-year-old playwright, Isaiah Christopher Lee, which explores the entangled currents of fear, guilt, loss and love.

Set against the absurdist backdrop of a crumbling house, the play follows Aileen and the ghosts of her memories as she seeks for something she cannot find except within herself. Aileen has grown disenchanted and apathetic after the traumatic events of her past. But what happens when her past returns to haunt her and she is forced to face her biggest fear of all – the truth?Inspired by his mother and grandmother, this tale blurs the lines of surrealism and reality to crystallise what it means to grapple with the abnormal mind. It delves into what it means to mother and be mothered, but more importantly the realities of our eternal search for answers.

Written by Isaiah Christopher Lee

Directed by Adeeb Fazah

Asst. Director/Sound Designer: Mark Benedict Cheong

Lighting Designer: Jim Chan

Set Designer: Edward Eng

Puppetry Consultant: Bright Ong

Production Manager: Abel Koh

Stage Manager: Marilyn Chew

Producer: Denise Dolendo, Kristine Ng

Cast:
Shannen Tan

Miriam Cheong

Lim Jun De

Claire Teo

Dwayne Ng

Cheryl Lee

Rachel Yen

Aaron Cheang

Marcus Tan

Isaiah Christopher Lee

Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-10-20,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y

Everything but the Brain

A dramatised play-reading

20 – 21 June 2015

Geylang East Public Library, Merpati Hall

Director: Mark Benedict Cheong

Playwright: Jean Tay

Interchange

A co-creation initiative in conjunction with Geylang East Public Library including a workshop phase and culminating in a presentation of a new, devised play.

25 July 2015

Geylang East Public Library, Merpati Hall

Facilitator/Director: Adeeb Fazah, Mark Benedict Cheong