SG Insecure

Ticket Pricing

Standard: $38

Senior Citizen (Age 55 years old & above): $30.40

Local/Overseas Students: $30.40

Persons With Disabilities (PWD): $30.40

National Servicemen NSF (Full Time): $30.40

*Ticket Pricing excludes Booking Fee

**Concession tickets are subjected to checks at the point of entry. Please bring verification documents along if you're holding a concession ticket.

Booking Fee is as follows:

$6 booking fee per ticket for tickets above $50

$3 booking fee per ticket for tickets between $20.01 and $50

$1 booking fee per ticket for tickets priced up to $20

Hello and welcome. We are from the SG Insecure Task Force. We are here to share with you our Huat Ah! initiatives to promote community bonding and the kampung spirit—while instilling fear and insecurity in your hearts! Do you see anything suspicious? Be vigilant! Report radical ideas and non-traditional values! Together we will make Singapore SUSA: Staying Under Surveillance Always.

The Necessary Stage presents SG Insecure, a provocative investigation of Singapore past and present. Migrant workers, the Fajar Trial and Singapore’s surveillance systems are some of the hot topics interwoven in powerful short plays written by Associate Artists A Yagnya, Deonn Yang and Sindhura Kalidas, with additional texts and direction by Haresh Sharma.

SG Insecure is a potent and incisive work that grapples with the paradoxes between our individuality, belonging and community—as active citizens under the watchful eyes of the state.

Written by A Yagnya, Sindhura Kalidas, Deonn Yang, and Haresh Sharma

Performed by Cheryl Ho, Jamil Schulze, Jodi Chan, Moli Mohter, Munah Bagharib, Shrey Bhargava, and Sivakumar Palakrishnan

Director: Haresh Sharma

Assistant Director: Deonn Yang

Dramaturg: Melissa Lim

Sound Designer: Safuan Johari

Lighting Designer: Faith Liu Hong Huay

Open captions available for all performances.

Post-show dialogues will take place after the 8pm performances on Friday 31 October and 7 November 2025.

Terms of Ticket Sales

• Once sold, there will be strictly no cancellation, exchange or refund of tickets unless the Singapore government mandates the closure of events in Singapore. All information given is correct at the time of publishing, but is subject to change without prior notice. The Promoter reserves all rights to amend any terms and conditions without prior notice, and, in the event of any dispute, the Promoter’s decision is final.

Conditions of Entry

• Admission is subject to valid tickets produced at the entrance.

General

• Please note that the performance's duration is 90 minutes.
• Mobile phones must be switched off or switched to silent mode in the theatre.
• Photography and videography are strictly not allowed during the performance.
• No outside food and drinks are allowed into the venue.
• Entry to the event may be refused if the authenticity or validity of a ticket is questionable, including if the ticket has been damaged or defaced in any way, or has not been purchased from Organizer/BookMyShow or authorized points of sale by the organizer.
• Patrons are required to follow all house rules and regulations set out by the venue. The House Rules are displayed within the venue premises.

_{All information is correct at time of publishing but may be subject to change without prior notice.}

_{The Promoter reserves the right to amend the above without prior notice. In the event of any dispute, the Promoter's decision is final.}

THE NECESSARY STAGE

Established in 1987, The Necessary Stage (TNS) is a non-profit theatre company with charity status. Our mission is to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches the heart and mind. TNS has the honour of being the only arts company in Singapore helmed by two Cultural Medallion recipients: Artistic Director and Founder Alvin Tan and Resident Playwright Haresh Sharma. The company is also the organiser and curator of the annual Singapore Fringe Festival.

TNS is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme for the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026.

For more information, visit necessary.org and tnsarchives.com or contact us at [email protected]

Follow us on:

Facebook at facebook.com/thenecessarystage,

Instagram at instagram.com/thenecessarystage

LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/the-necessary-stage

Cast

Cheryl Ho

Cheryl Ho is an award-winning actor, theatre-maker, and facilitator. 

She loves reading, enjoying nature and spending time with her loved ones. 

She values care, fun and inclusion, and prioritises creating environments as well as setting up systems for people to feel supported to do their best work. 

More info at cherylhohuiee.com.

Jamil Schulze

Jamil Schulze (he/him) is an artist, theatre-maker, actor-movement trainer, and co-founder of Nusantara Theatrics. He works across text and performance, theatrical stagings, television and film, movement work, installation and site activations, as well as actor training. Jamil holds a BA(Hons) in Acting and an MA in Arts Pedagogy & Practice.

Selected theatre credits as an actor include History, Whose Story? (TNS), The Pillowman (Sight Lines), Dream of the Red Chamber (The Finger Players), Make Hantus Great Again (Teater Ekamatra), The Glass Menagerie (Pangdemonium), and The Lifespan of a Fact (Singapore Repertory Theatre).

Jodi Chan

Jodi graduated from the University of Exeter, UK, with a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Practice - Physical Performance & Actor Training (Distinction). Since 2014, she has been working professionally as a theatre performer and educator. Her acting credits include Home Kitchen (Nine Years Theatre), The Heart of Jun (Siong Leng Musical Association), White, All White (TNS), Hua Mulan (Danny Yeo and Dingyi Music Company), The Crab Flower Club (Toy Factory), Chinatown Crossings (Drama Box), Rubbish Prince (3Pumpkins) and Four Horse Road (The Theatre Practice).

Moli Mohter

Moli Mohter is a passionate theatre practitioner and drama educator dedicated to empowering communities through the arts. With a focus on storytelling, identity, and social issues, she creates inclusive, culturally grounded performances that engage diverse audiences. Her work spans directing, acting, and facilitating drama workshops, particularly for youth and underserved groups. Moli believes in the transformative power of theatre to foster empathy, confidence, and language proficiency. Her practice often highlights Malay social issues, using theatre as a platform to spark dialogue and amplify underrepresented voices within the community.

Munah Bagharib

Munah Bagharib is a Singaporean actress, presenter, and content creator known for her vibrant presence on stage and screen. She first rose to prominence through her work on social media, before transitioning into theatre and television. Her stage credits include Lost Cinema 20/20 (Best Actress nominee, The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards) and God Is A Woman (Production of the Year, 2023). On screen, she hosts Channel NewsAsia’s Talking Point and Mediacorp’s I Can See Your Voice Singapore. Beyond performance, Munah is a dedicated advocate for mental health and caregiving, serving as an ambassador for Dementia Singapore and the Singapore Cancer Society.

Shrey Bhargava

Shrey Bhargava is an actor working across stage and screen. He first gained recognition as the runner-up on The 5 Search (2015) at 19. He later graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Theatre (Acting) and Cinema & Media Studies, becoming the first actor of Asian origin to receive the Ruth & Albert McKinlay Award for Outstanding Actor.

Selected theatre credits include Fried Rice Paradise: The Makan Party (Singapore Repertory Theatre, 2025), Singapore, Michigan (Pangdemonium, 2025), The Pillowman (Sight Lines, 2025); Eclipse (TNS, 2025); Train to Pakistan (HuM Theatre, 2024); Disgraced (Singapore Repertory Theatre, 2024) and The Prose and The Passion (SIFA, 2024).

Screen credits include Elevator (Netflix, 2024); This Land is Mine (Prime Video, 2021); Third Rail (Prime Video, 2022); and Titoudao: Dawn of a New Stage (MeWatch, 2023), for which he won Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Singapore) at the 2023 Asian Academy Creative Awards.

@shreybhargava | shreyb.com

Sivakumar Palakrishnan

A revered actor and director in both English and Tamil media in Singapore, Sivakumar Palakrishnan has excelled in many lead roles across theatre, drama, and film (including projects for Netflix and HBO). His directing portfolio includes acclaimed Tamil dramas such as Kannum Kannum Kolaiyadital, Marma Medai, Mani, and Addukku Veetu Annasamy 2. In English, he directed The Noose Seasons 7, 8, and 9, which garnered awards at the ASEAN Television Awards.

Sivakumar’s acting achievements include the Best Actor award at Pradhana Vizha 2014, the Best Supporting Actor award at Mediacorp Singapore in 2022, and an international Best Actor award for A Yellow Bird at the ASEAN Film Awards in Vietnam (2017). He represented Singapore at Cannes, where A Yellow Bird won Best Movie.

Sivakumar actively supports the next generation of filmmakers. He served as the main jury for the Youth Film Festival in Singapore (2023) and was part of the jury for Pesta Pradhana, the prestigious award ceremony for Singapore’s Malay industry. Attaining his Masters in Counselling, he is committed to raising mental health awareness through his work in media.

Creatives

Haresh Sharma – Head Writer & Director

Haresh has been the Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage since 1990. He was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2015 and most recently in 2025, the Honorary Doctor of Arts by Bath Spa University (UK). To date, he has written more than 130 plays which have been staged in over 20 cities. His play, Off Centre, was selected by the Ministry of Education as a Literature text for GCE N- and O-Levels.  

Haresh has 13 publications of his plays, including Trilogy, Shorts 1, Shorts 2, Don't Forget to Remember Me and Abuse Suxxx!!! and Other Plays. His works have been translated into Malay, Mandarin, Greek and Italian. He was awarded Best Original Script for Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards respectively. In 2021, Haresh published Reading the Room: A Playwright’s Devising Journey, which details his devising process developed over his career at TNS. Haresh also had the honour of having a selection of his works featured at Esplanade’s first playwright-centred season at The Studios in 2017. 

He has participated in several writers' festivals including the inaugural Singapore Literature Festival in New York (2014), New Delhi World Book Fair (2015), Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (2015), Hong Kong Literary Festival (2015) and Neilson Hays Bangkok Literature Festival (2019). 

Haresh is the first non-American to be awarded the prestigious Goldberg Master Playwright by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2011. In 2014, he was conferred the Southeast Asian Writers (or S.E.A. Write) Award (Singapore), which recognises and honours literary excellence in the ASEAN region.  

Deonn Yang – Playwright & Assistant Director

Deonn is an actor, theatre-maker and teacher. She graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2016 with a BA (First Class Hons) in Acting. Deonn is currently an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage and a core member of Playwrights’ Commune, an independent playwriting collective. 

As an actor, Deonn has been a part of Esplanade’s PLAYtime! and Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts, M1 Singapore Fringe Festivals, and the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). Her notable theatre credits include Tanah•Air 水•土. by Drama Box, and Straight Acting produced by Wild Rice, which earned her a Best Actress nomination at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2022.

As a theatre-maker, Deonn made her professional debut as a playwright-director at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2023. She also recently directed a successful run of Survivor Singapore as part of Esplanade’s Feed Your Imagination (F.Y.I) 2023 programme. Deonn has collaborated with TNS and Haresh Sharma since 2017 and was recently assistant director to Haresh for Acting Mad (2022), Three Years in the Life and Death of Land (2023), as well as co-director for History, Whose Story? (2025).

Deonn is grateful and excited for the opportunity to continue working with TNS as an Associate Artist for 2025/2026, and looks forward to growing, learning and developing further as an artist. She is interested in people and their stories and always having a good laugh.

A Yagnya – Playwright

A Yagnya is a collaborative theatre-maker and an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage. Yagnya’s playwriting credits include Help! Our Dead Have Dementia and Other Stories (SIFA X: there is no future in nostalgia), Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea... (Esplanade’s Kala Utsavam 2022, The Straits Times Life Theatre Award Nomination for Best Original Script) which she also co-directed, and Hi, Can You Hear Me? (TNS’s Playwright’s Cove 2020 and main season in 2024). She has also done the Japanese translation for Chong Tze Chien’s Kingdoms Apart (In New Light—A Season of Commissions, 2022), dramaturged for (un)becoming (Festival of Women N.O.W. 2021), co-written for GroundZ_0’s Prism of Truth (Esplanade’s Huayi 2020) and acted in Goddesses of Words: Angry Indian Women (Textures 2020). She was a participant in Devising for Actors and Playwrights 2021 and Playwrights’ Cove 2020 by TNS and is currently a resident playwright at Centre 42’s Playwright's Professional Development Residency Pilot 2022-2023. Yagnya enjoys creating socially conscious works that challenge her audience into breaking out of their echo chambers.

IG: @iggyeggieggyagnya

Sindhura Kalidas – Playwright

Sindhura Kalidas is a theatre practitioner and educator. She is currently an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage and a core team member of The Finger Players (TFP). 

Sindhu’s recent performance credits include Wild Rice’s Psychobitch, Deonn Yang’s Why Be Good When You Can Be The Best? (2023), presented as part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore Repertory Theatre’s The Coronalogues (2020), and TNS’s Off Centre (2019). 

Her recent dramaturgical credits include the Singapore Youth Theatre’s double bill Every Student Is A Good Student/In My Head (2023), TFP’s Puppet Origin Stories (2022), as well as TNS’s Acting Mad (2022).

She is also the writer of TNS’s Happy Indian Women (2023), a verbatim theatre production which questions the assumptions we make about the diverse South Asian diaspora in Singapore today, which she co-directed with Haresh Sharma. 

Sindhu is a recipient of the NAC Postgraduate Arts Scholarship and holds an MA (Distinction) in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths, University of London. She hopes to continue exploring themes of race, gender, and community in future works and shed light on underrepresented and misrepresented groups in Singapore. 

She is deeply grateful to be learning from and growing with TNS.

Melissa Lim – Dramaturg

Melissa is the General Manager of The Necessary Stage and the Executive Producer of the annual Singapore Fringe Festival.

Aside from running TNS since 2005, she assisted with research and translation for TNS’s productions, including Manifesto (2016) and Underclass (2018). She also served as the dramaturg for the company’s works such as 《演员四十》(Actor, Forty) (Esplanade Huayi 2017 commission), Civilised (2019), The Year of No Return (SIFA 2020/2021 commission), and now, SG Insecure (2025). As Executive Producer of the Singapore Fringe Festival, she leads the overall organisation and curatorial team for the event.

Melissa is deeply grateful to TNS and the awesome SG Insecure team for this opportunity to contribute to this pivotal production.

Faith Liu Yong Huay – Lighting Designer

Faith Liu Yong Huay is currently a freelance lighting designer in Singapore, focusing on theatre and dance performances since 2016. Her lighting portfolio is available for viewing at liuyonghuay.tumblr.com.

She graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (2016) under the National Arts Council Scholarship (Postgraduate). 

She co-founded 微 Wei Collective with Neo Hai Bin in 2017, which is interested in the performance of space, and how material and movement can allow one to experience a breathing space. Her collective’s work can be viewed at instagram.com/weicollective.

She sees playing as a quintessential process to provide new insights into a piece of creative work. She enjoys telling stories through space and light. 

She is honoured to be an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage 2025/2026 and is looking forward to working with everyone at The Necessary Stage. 

Safuan Johari – Sound Designer

Safuan Johari is an artist who works primarily as a composer, music producer and sound designer. Music-making is usually a world building exercise and the resulting microcosms often meander through traditional, experimental and popular topographies of Nusantara (Maritime Southeast Asia) culture. Started out as a prominent figure in Singapore’s underground music scene, he has expanded his practice into composing for theatre, dance, films and multimedia installations.

Over the years, his fascination for imagining a speculative future built upon the spectres of cultural past grew deeper. His practice tends to study the complex cycles of, and complicated relationships between mythology, history and futurity. New perspectives are constantly formed, which provided the motivation for Safuan to explore his works beyond music and sound. The recent years have seen him taking directorial and curatorial roles for commissioned works by The Esplanade, Singapore International Festival of the Arts and National Gallery Singapore. This expansion in breadth also sees him experimenting with generative audio-visual digital media.

Individually and as a collaborator, Safuan has performed, exhibited or presented works at Palais de Tokyo Paris, tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Festival/Tokyo, Perth Festival, Sydney Festival, Worldwide Festival Sète, Singapore International Festival of the Arts and the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. He is also currently an Associate Artist of The Necessary Stage.

IG: @maxlane

Production Credits

Celestine Wong – Production Manager

Celestine enjoys working behind the scenes in the local theatre industry. With an interest in production management and lighting programming, she has worked with different companies like Arts House Limited, Emergency Stairs, and The Finger Players. She relishes the different opportunities that come her way.

Jasmine Khaliesah – Rehearsal Stage Manager (Phase 1)

Jasmine Khaliesah is a graduate of LASALLE BA Arts Management programme. She continues to explore and learn about various types of stage management work as well as technical theatre through the freelance opportunities she receives from both local theatre companies as well as independent producers.

Hanna Daud – Stage Manager

Hanna is a freelance stage manager based in Singapore. A graduate of LASALLE College of the Arts (Diploma in Technical Theatre & Production Management, 2020), they have worked on productions including The Wizard of Oz (Wild Rice), Air (Drama Box), and Hi, Can You Hear Me? (The Necessary Stage).

Xena Gooi – Assistant Stage Manager

Xena is committed to ensuring every performance runs seamlessly. As an Assistant Stage Manager, she finds joy in witnessing the magic of backstage come to life.

Her recent backstage credits include Asian Boys Vol. 1 by Wild Rice, The Spice Mission and The Moon Mission by The Solitude Movement, and Titoudao by Toy Factory Productions, among others.

Xena hopes the audience would enjoy the show as much as she enjoyed being part of bringing it to life.

AK (Kumarran) – Set & Technical Coordinator

AK is a technically inclined individual who enjoys the challenges of problem solving. He relishes putting a plan on paper and watching it take shape in real life—especially so when it involves technology. He also specialises in lighting design for dance and theatrical productions. He can also often be found with a camera trying to find interesting perspectives of uninteresting things.

Tan Jia Hui – Costume Coordinator & Wardrobe Mistress

Jia Hui is an accomplished professional in the field of arts and theatre management, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to her role.

With a career spanning various facets of theatre production, she has worked closely with both local and international costume designers, contributing to a diverse array of productions.

Her extensive background includes not only managing intricate costume designs but also coordinating the seamless execution of theatrical visions. Jia Hui's hands-on experience ensures that every project she undertakes reflects a high standard of creativity and precision.

Joanna Ong – Captioner

Joanna Ong is a creative captions designer whose practice explores the artistic potential of accessibility. She works primarily with captions to create equitable and aesthetic experiences for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing audiences, integrating them seamlessly into theatre, dance, and music performances.

Her most intricate work to date, And the Cats Dance by the Light (2024), featured animated music visualisations and motion graphics interwoven with caption design. As a Creative Enabler with the Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Inclusive Young Company, she led their first creative captioned production Open the Curtains (2024), followed by Meet Fred (2025). She has also designed captions for productions by ART:DIS Singapore, including SmartyPants and the Swordfish (2024), Monstress (2025), and Through the Looking Glass (2025). Expanding beyond theatre, she captioned the dance production COLONY – A True Colors Project (SIFA, 2025) and the music performance Songsmith (2025).

Joanna also advocates for creative access through talks and workshops, including at the Arts & Disability Forum 2025. Additionally, she currently serves as a project coordinator with the Singapore Drama Educators Association.

Seren Chen – Captions Operator

Seren is an artist and arts administrator who works primarily in the mode of text and voice. A firm advocate for accessibility in the arts, her work as an audio describer spans theatre, film, dance, and fine art. She has worked with organisations such as T.H.E Dance Company, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Repertory Theatre, and Wild Rice, as well as on projects and events like Channel News Asia documentaries and True Colors Festival. As an artist, she is interested in destabilising experiences, humans’ relationship with the earth, and finding meaning through creative collaboration. She has recently completed Wild Rice’s Young & Wild programme under the mentorship of Edith Podesta and is pursuing further training to develop her artistic practice.

Nicole Lim – Project Manager

Nicole is a project manager with The Necessary Stage who is passionate about preserving the human connection in an increasingly tech-forward world.

She has previously worked with the likes of the Singapore International Film Festival, We Love Jazz, St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, the Singapore Tourism Board and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in various capacities including education and outreach as well as community-building. She deeply enjoys playing a part in bringing stories that matter to a wider audience.

It takes a village to bring any production to life, and Nicole is thankful for the kindness and generosity of the good folks she has crossed paths with who have made this journey beyond fulfilling.

And to you, our audience, thank you for sharing your time and presence with us!

Other Credits:

Hair Styling: Ashley Lim

Make Up: The Make Up Room

Photography and Videography: Tuckys Photography

Graphic Design: Currency Design