Ceremonial court music echoes around the theatre as King Parameswara and Queen Rathnadewi saunter onto the stage donning glittering costumes and a plethora of gold and jewel accessories.
As the stage light falls on them, the king gazes up and faces an audience comprising a large number of teenagers and young adults – much like the cast of Avant Theatre’s production of Paremeswara on stage.
It’s a sight that has become increasingly common over the years as the Tamil theatre scene in Singapore grows in both repertoire and stature with each production.
For the people who run the shows, such as Mr G. Selvananthan, 56, founding director of Avant Theatre and Language, the involvement of youth on all three fronts – behind the scenes, on stage and in the front rows of the audience – is a heartening trend.
“The Tamil theatre scene here has changed significantly from the 80s and 90s,” he says.
“We used to put up plays focusing on societal problems. Now, we have different groups focusing on different aspects of Tamil theatre, so there is variety for a younger audience.”
The four major theatre groups in the Tamil theatre industry today – Avant Theatre and Language, Agam Theatre Lab, Athipathi, and Singapore Indian Theatre and Films Explorers (SITFE) – offer various genres and styles of productions while opening their doors to budding actors and directors.
Many young actors are now taking the step up to such theatre groups straight from their school productions, says founder of Agam Theatre Lab Subramanian Ganesh.
“We have explored new ways to bring theatre to the younger audiences, and even used VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) to stage a literary play (Duruyodhana), Mr Ganesh, 39, says.
Though the Tamil theatre scene in Singapore came to life in the 1930s, the 1980s to 2000s were its flourishing years, as multiple drama groups entered the fore. One that stood out was the currently inactive Ravindran Drama Group (RDG), where many of today’s industry leaders got their start.
In the 2010s, local dramas were added to the Ministry of Education Tamil Literature syllabus, especially in junior colleges.
As with most industries, things dialled down during the pandemic, but the scene has since regained momentum with a string of productions.
Tamil theatre companies have been rather active over the last few years. In 2023, for instance, there were six productions across the four major theatre groups. Four of them involved a cast and crew primarily under the age of 23 – Avant’s Raasi, Athipathi’s Athipathi, Agam’s Vidhai, and SITFE’s Solo.
These shows were staged in various theatres, such as the Esplanade Theatre Studio, with some playing to a sold-out audience.
“The scene is growing; theatre groups are coming up with more productions in recent years, which in turn has provided more opportunities for young actors” says Mr Selva.
Ms M. Priyaatharshini, 23, who acted in Avant’s Parameswara, said the Tamil theatre scene here provides a refreshing experience as most of the stories are based on the “Singaporean diasporan context”, compared with Tamil films and TV series, which are based mostly in India.
“I wanted to explore acting after watching the stage dramas here,” she said. “Acting in a play opened my eyes to the hours of dedication and hard work behind it. It was exhausting but the high I got from my last show (Parameswara) was priceless.”
Budding actors are also making the leap to Tamil from English theatre, such as Mikhil Anand, who played the lead in the short drama Naai, one of five segments in Agam’s Panikkan earlier this month.
The 23-year-old fell in love with acting after his parents enrolled him in his primary school’s drama club to aid with his stammer. “I transitioned to Tamil theatre after doing Tamil dramas in school, realising that this space gave me a stronger sense of community,” he said.
“I always found it harder to draw a connection to my English characters compared to my Tamil characters.”
It’s not just the acting bug that has caught on. Mr Subramanian Karthikeyan, 22, has always had a penchant for directing, and sees the stage as a medium that allows him to bring his vision of storytelling to life.
“I started as a fan of movies, but over time I realised that theatre had a magic that films did not,” said Mr Karthikeyan, who made his directorial debut in 2023 with Sangae Muzhangu, staged by the National University of Singapore’s Tamil Language Society.
While the industry welcomes one and all, regardless of age, SITFE founder Saleem Hadi says youth should come into it with a “learning mindset”.
“As long as they do not come into the scene to chase fame, they’ll do fine. They need to come in with a learning mindset to get the most out of the experience,” he said.
By Yugesh Kannan
