Moving Gods
Landmarks fade.
Time shifts.
And even gods get left behind.
We move.
We remember.
We search.
For what? We do not know.
Time’s up. We have to go.
A taxi driver fetches an old woman on her way to an old folks home. As the journey progresses, the driver becomes increasingly lost. Wandering in circles, once familiar streets become strangely unfamiliar, and landmarks fade into the long night.
The temple is about to be demolished, there are too many gods to move, and no one can decide which gods are relocated and which gods are destroyed. Suddenly, the taxi driver arrives.
An exploration on how buildings, like Man, find their current destiny influenced by past lives, Moving Gods ia a rumination on loss, inheritance, and the value of preservation when faced of rapid growth and progress. Assembling three generations of Singaporean Actors, “Moving Gods” is The Theatre Practice’s first original play since 2001.
Date: 9 – 12 July 2003
Venue: Jubilee Hall
Director: Wu Xi
Playwright: Lim Jen Erh, Wu Xi
Producer: Tang Chia Yu
Set Designer: Lim Wei Ling
Costume Designer: Shi Man Hua
Lighting Designer: Yo Shao Ann
Sound Designer: Leong Wey Hsien
Production Manager: Chan Lee Lee
Stage Manager: Jillian Lim
Cast: Ho Lai Kuen, Johnny Ng, Danny Yeo, Emma Yong, Alvin Chiam
Jen Erh: There’s a temple over there that’s about to move, and its gods have nowhere to go.
I answer: hmmm.
Well, what could I really say? There are just some things that we can’t do anything about.
Reading a script is like opening a map, and on the map there is a trail.
So we followed the clues on the trail, and it led us to a small temple. It led us to warm people, and to cold people, and we witnessed their anguish, their hurt, and their lack of choices in life. And at the same time, through this journey, we discovered that many temples would eventually have no future, and that many gods lead turbulent life.
So we arrived at Pulau Ubin, and finally found the little temple that we had been looking for. It was abandoned and deserted, standing on an empty plot of soil. ANd yet, the temple was not angry. It merely looked upon us quietly.
At the end of our journey, as we were standing on the beach on Pulau Ubin, gazing back across at the incandescent glow of Singapore’s city lights, we suddenly wondered- what have we actually lost?
– Wu Xi