Part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2025
Dates & Times:
12 January 2025, Sunday, 2pm & 5pm
19 January 2025, Sunday, 2pm & 5pm
With a good cast giving their all onstage, an unflinching, objectively written story that speaks truth to the limitations of being a migrant in Singapore, and imaginative script that explores the pitfalls of love and family, Foreign Bodies was a rare, big-hearted, honest glimpse into migrant life, by migrant workers with a story to tell.
—Bakchormeeboy.com on Foreign Bodies
Please welcome The Troupe! They travel around towns and villages with their show.They perform stories about farmers, refugees, students, politicians and aid workers—people in search of a better life. As they stage their play, they discover that what they perform may be closer to home than they realise.
Birds Migrant Theatre returns to the Fringe with another important play that focuses on current world issues—from war to the refugee crisis—and how these tragedies pose questions to our common humanity.The Troupe looks at how people who are affected by displacement strive for a more positive future—not just for themselves, but for their families and community. Will suffering and desperation bring out the best in people—or the worst? What is the price of compassion?
...a well-told story that dramatises the legal precarity migrant workers may face in Singapore. It does so without resorting to mere sympathy oran easy us-versus-them set-up, choosing instead to let audiences into its protagonists’ dilemmas.
—The Straits Times Life on Foreign Bodies
Accessibility features: Open captions in English for all shows.
There will be a dialogue with the artists after the 5pm performance on 12 January 2025, with speech to text interpretation available upon request. Please email your request to [email protected] by 6 December 2024.
General
Once tickets are sold, there are strictly no cancellation, exchange or refund.
Photography
Photography and videography are strictly not allowed during the performance.
Accessibility
We welcome patrons who need accessible seating arrangements—including wheelchair users, those who require access to open captions, and those with assistance dogs.
Due to varying production designs and seating configurations, please contact us at [email protected] before booking your ticket so we can share more information about seating and routes with you. You can also find more information about accessibility at the Fringe website.
For queries or more information, please contact us at [email protected].
BIRDS MIGRANT THEATRE
Birds Migrant Theatre is a theatre group comprising migrant workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Its name is a reference to migratory birds. They are united by an interest in theatre and performance. Since 2018, they have performed for the Singapore Theatre Festival, the Global Migrant Festival, and Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay’s Red Dot August festival. They have been receiving guidance from Haresh Sharma, Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage, and Serena Ho.
CO-PLAYWRIGHT & PERFORMER – ZILANI
Zilani is from Bangladesh. He has been working in Singapore for 12 years .He loves to read and write. He writes about inequality, gender discrimination and human rights. Zilani loves humour, politics, philosophy, and critical thinking. He has performed in Big Dream, Textbook Sambal, and Foreign Bodies. He also performed in And So We Dance, part of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay’s da:ns festival 2021. Through his theatre activities, he tells stories, breaks stereotypes, and spreads positivity about the migrant workers in Singapore.
CO-PLAYWRIGHT & PERFORMER – DENI APRIYANI
Deni Apriyani is from Indramayu, Indonesia, and has been working as a domestic worker in Singapore since 2013. She won first prize at the Migrant Worker Poetry Competition in 2017. She began exploring theatre in 2018 and has since written and performed in various productions, including the W!LDRICE’s Singapore Theatre Festival,, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay’s Red Dot August, and the Global Migrant Festival. Her recent performances include And So We Dance, part of Esplanade’s da:ns festival(2021) and Foreign Bodies at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (2023).
PERFORMER – RINA HAKIM
Rina Hakim is from Indramayu, West Java. She has been working in Singapore for 16 years. She likes adventurous activities like hiking and biking. She likes to learn about other cultures and she is lucky to have visited other countries with her boss and learn new things when she travels. She has been to South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Bali, where she learned about their culture, food, and history. She loves to travel and always enjoys the trips with her boss. In her leisure time, she likes to go to the beach, listen to music, sing, and write poetry. She like to try new things and joined acting to challenge her and make her more confident.
PERFORMER – PHONE
Phone, a Singaporean native of Burmese descent, is pursuing his artistic education at LASALLE College of the Arts. Driven by his upbringing as the son of immigrant parents, He is honored to perform work written by migrant workers. He hopes to continue celebrating his heritage and parents in his career. His stage credits include Secondary the Musical (Checkpoint Theatre) as an Understudy, and Where Our Heart Beats, directed by Tan Kheng Hua, as Nizar and Thiha.
PERFORMER – FARAH HAJAN
Farah graduated from the International Baccalaureate Career Programme at School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA) in 2023. At SOTA, she acted as Dalang in Age of Bones, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Tubb in The Hothouse, and Estragon in Waiting for Godot. While doing devised work, she discovered her passion for physical theatre. She sees theatre as a medium that allows expression and connection between people and communities. As such, she intends to extend her knowledge and continue pursuing her studies at LASALLE College of the Arts in 2024.
PLAYWRIGHT – WIWI TRI
Wiwi Tri is from Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. She has been working in Singapore as a domestic helper since 2004. She developed a passion for theatre and writing from a young age. Besides writing and acting, she wants to explore more about stage performance. Her play Shoes was given a dramatised reading at W!LD RICE’s Singapore Theatre Festival 2018. She recently performed in And So We Dance, part of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay’s da:ns festival (2021). She believes nothing is impossible in this world as long as one works hard for it.
PLAYWRIGHT – SUGIARTI MUSTIARJO
Sugiarti Mustiarjo is from Central Java, Indonesia. She loves photography, hiking, dogs, and cats. Her motto is to live to the fullest with no regrets. She tried to be vegetarian but failed because she loves to eat steak. She won first prize at the 2018 Migrant Worker Poetry Competition. She has written and performed for Red Dot August, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay’s, da:ns festival and the Global Migrant Festival. In 2021, she acted in a short film for ciNE65’s Movie Maker Awards. She misses Rufus the lemon beagle who passed away last year.
CO-DIRECTOR – SERENA HO
Serena Ho is a director and facilitator. She started her career as an actor and has since worked at many schools and theatre companies. She derives joy from collaborating with various communities. She enjoys work that is based on real life experiences and aims to realise new forms of empowerment through process work in classrooms and rehearsals.
CO-DIRECTOR – HARESH SHARMA
Haresh Sharma is the Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage. He has been mentoring Birds Migrant Theatre since 2018 and is proud to see the group grow from strength to strength. He has conducted acting and play writing workshops for Birds, and devised plays with them. He has also invited Singapore artists to work with them such as Sharda Harrison, Sindhura Kalidas, Deonn Yang, A Yagnya, and ArunDitha. He is excited to be co-directing The Troupe.
MULTIMEDIA DESIGNER – RODNEY OLIVEIRO
Rodney Oliveiro is an actor, writer and director with over twenty years of experience in local theatre. He is also a drama trainer who has worked with many schools. In the last few years, he has also branched out his other passion—shooting and producing videos.
LIGHTING DESIGNER – EMANORWATTY SALEH
Emanorwatty’s love for theater began in 1992. She attained a BA in Technical Theatre Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2007. Since then, she has embarked on what she calls street style where her approach is less formal and conventional, allowing more room for exploration and experimentation, and best of all, leading to unpredictability. Recent credits include Motherland by Very Shy Gurl/ M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 (Practice Space, The Theatre Practice),The Dog Who Wasn’t Useful by Drama Box Ltd/Esplanade’s Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2024 (Esplanade TheatreStudio), Kita by Teater Kami (Cairnhill Arts Centre Black Box), Air (2024) by Drama Box Ltd (Esplanade’s Singtel Waterfront Theatre), and Phinny And Wally by Nine Years Theatre (Drama Centre Black Box). Emanorwatty enjoys the adrenaline that comes with the job, and currently she is confronting the challenges that exist within the digital realm.
STAGE MANAGER – LINETTE CHAN
Linette Chan is a social service professional by day and a theatre lover by heart, with backstage and technical experience working on student productions in Singapore and the United Kingdom. She is constantly inspired by the ingenuity, empathy, and wit of the members of the company, and believes in the capacity of humans as artists to look outwards beyond ourselves, to learn from the multitude of differences between us, and share in what we all hold in common.