Saga of displaced indigenous Orang Seletar deepens in Drama Box’s updated staging of Air

SINGAPORE – Five years since Drama Box first told the story of Johor’s displaced Orang Seletar in its verbatim theatre show Air, co-director Kok Heng Leun, 58, finds it “depressing” that the villagers he met are still facing issues of displacement.

He and co-director Adib Kosnan, 38, say challenges persist for the people they spoke to, with a recent court ruling that could force the seafaring community to relocate further inland. The Orang Seletar – who lived in Singapore but left and resettled on the southern coast of Johor – had previously been displaced from the sea to the coast.

The updated version of Air (Malay for “water”) will tackle contemporary issues faced by the community post-pandemic, and is based on new visits to the Orang Seletar villagers living primarily in Kampung Sungai Temon and Kampung Pasir Putih. Playwright Zulfadli Rashid wrote the script, which draws on the interviewees’ own words.

Air, which plays at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre from July 12 to 14, is the first of four shows which are part of Esplanade’s The Studios season. The 2024 theme of Fault Lines is the second part of a trilogy under the theme of Land, which will guide The Studios programmes till 2025.

Works in the 2024 season map the fault lines of global politics onto everyday life. Singaporean artist Sim Chi Yin’s One Day We’ll Understand is a search for the artist’s late grandfather who was deported during the Malayan Emergency, while Ming Wong’s Rhapsody In Yellow tackles China-US relations through a ping-pong double concerto.

Thai theatremaker Wichaya Artamat makes his Singapore debut with This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May). The play subtly tackles Thai politics through the story of a brother-and-sister duo commemorating their late father on three pivotal days in Thai history.

Air was first staged as part of double bill Tanah.Air in 2019, during the bicentennial celebration of Raffles’ arrival in Singapore, as a critical rejoinder to the celebration of colonial histories.

“What is scary is that it is even more relevant at this moment,” says Kok, a former Nominated Member of Parliament and Cultural Medallion recipient.

In 2024, discussions about colonialism are once again at the forefront on a global scale, says Kok. He recounts an incident of a Chinese developer arriving unannounced at the cemetery of an Orang Seletar village and planning for developments around their homes.

Kok says: “It’s just equally violent. You can see all the parallels there immediately, whether it’s (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or what the Israelis are doing at this moment.”

In this new version, the team is incorporating a new interview with a young woman from Kampung Pasir Putih, which has allowed younger perspectives to come to the forefront.

Adib says: “Like the tide, they’re at the mercy of whatever happens. For us, we see that things are happening beyond their control because of people or systems which are making these decisions. But for them, it doesn’t matter if it is just nature, the land or the sea. They have to deal with it, so they will just pull through it.”

Air co-directors Adib Kosnan and Kok Heng Leun say reconnecting with the Orang Seletar a second time has given them a chance to deepen their relationship with the villagers. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

The pandemic, too, has created new problems. Adib and Kok learnt, for example, that some villagers believed the government had given them what they perceived as the inferior vaccines from China. At least one of the villagers attributed his breathlessness when diving today to the vaccines.

Drama Box’s team of 15 had gained the trust of their hosts on this second visit and were allowed in the cemetery. They were also able to see first-hand an Orang Seletar post-childbirth practice involving the placenta, which will feature in the show.

Adib characterises their initial visit for the 2019 show as “a first date”. This time, he says: “It is like you are in the family and you are visiting and getting to know the bigger picture. More things are shared because we’ve already had that base. We could go a bit deeper and we knew what to ask.”

Kok says of the importance of making the visit as a whole team: “It forces us as artists to pay more attention to the authenticity of things.”

This practice of “deep hanging out” has been key to the artistic practice of Kok, who visited Pulau Ubin almost 60 times in the past year for an ongoing project related to the island. Called Project 12, it first started as an immersive walking tour – ubin – during the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2022.

(From left) Saiful Amri, Dalifah Shahril, Rizman Putra and Suhaili Safari rehearsing at Drama Box’s space for Air on June 19. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Both ubin and Air deal with ways of life that are slowly disappearing as modernity and development encroach.

Kok says: “The value of the sea to them is not about money – it’s about sustenance, it’s about a way of living, it’s about their identity. But we don’t have identity in Singapore generally – we move from places to places, we move where the house’s value goes or where it serves our convenience.”

He laments: “Can our world allow two kinds of communities to coexist? Why must one community colonise another community? Why can’t you respect them for who they are – that their sense of identity is so rooted to the sea?”

Kok feels there is more to explore with these two shows that deal with minority communities and how they exist and thrive.

He says: “I have a sense it may not end here.”

Book It/Air

Where: Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade, 8 Raffles AvenueWhen: July 12, 8pm; July 13, 3 and 8pm; July 14, 3pmAdmission: From $40
Info: str.sg/rUno