A long-held collective dream to catapult homegrown Tamil theatre onto the global stage will soon be realised from Aug 20 to 30, thanks to Nadagamic 2026 – the country’s inaugural international Tamil theatre festival.
Organised by AGAM Theatre Lab – a self-funded local theatre company established in 2019 – the 11-day milestone event will see patrons, practitioners, and the creative diaspora from New Zealand, United Kingdom, India, and Singapore unite to celebrate Tamil theatre.
Another key ambition of the festival is to engage new communities and non-Tamil speakers.
Designed to be accessible, Nadagamic combines the Tamil word for drama (nadagam) with dynamic to create a name that is easy to pronounce.
“We also ensure that every production of ours has live subtitles,” explained AGAM’s founder and Nadagamic 2026’s curator Ganesh Subramanian, 41. “As you’re watching the performance, there will be two screens at each side to display the subtitles.”
This inclusive approach extends across the festival’s entire lineup, encompassing all eight mainstage plays. Furthermore, the six workshops and the public forum will be conducted in both English and Tamil to accommodate all attendees.
The bilingual strategy works, given that 30 per cent of the turnout at AGAM’s sold out production of Mission Malligapoo at the Esplanade’s 600-seat SingTel Waterfront Theatre last year were non-Indians.
Although Nadagamic has been in the works for the past few years, it could not really take flight due to financial and logistical constraints. “To rent a space for 11 days is going to be very expensive,” Mr Ganesh said.
That changed in 2025 when AGAM acquired its own 110-seat blackbox theatre at 39 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, where some of the festival’s programmes will be staged, such as the critically-acclaimed “Guru of Chai”, a one-man play filled with heart and humour.
It stars notable Kiwi playwright and actor Jacob Rajan, 60, as a bucked-tooth guru who dispels dubious spiritual wisdom while channeling 17 perfectly realised characters.
“Theatre doesn’t have to be realistic to feel true. I’ve always loved the idea that one actor, a handful of props and the audience’s imagination can create an entire world,” Mr Jacob said.
Tamil theatre veteran and artistic director of the UK-based Rasa Productions Rani Moorthy, 64, will also grace the stage with her renowned one-woman show “Whose Sari Now?”.
Praised by The Guardian as “a rich and complex garment of a play”, Ms Rani explores the themes of gender, age, and identity through monologue, mime, dance, and spoken word.
“Good stories don’t need passports,” the actress said. “I’ve dreamt of this kind of festival to open the hearts and minds of non-Tamils to the beauty of our art.”
Specialised masterclasses by fellow local theatre companies like AK Theatre’s “Therukoothu 101” (traditional street theatre) workshop will be held at the Goodman Arts Centre in Mountbatten. Other event spaces include The Arts House and the 560-seat PGP Hall in the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple.
To purchase festival passes or view the full programme lineup for Nadagamic 2026, please visit: https://www.nadagamic.com/
