Hero Video Credit: WILD RICE
WILD RICE’s Grand Opening Season kicks off in September 2019 with Emily of Emerald Hill, widely regarded as Singapore’s first English-language play.
The story centres on Emily Gan, a Peranakan woman who overcomes all odds to emerge as a powerful matriarch in a distinguished household. WILD RICE was founded in 2000 with its landmark gender-bending production of the play.
“WILD RICE, and indeed Singapore English-language theatre, would not exist without Emily of Emerald Hill,” says Heng. “Our groundbreaking production of Stella’s remarkable play was bold, thought-provoking and wild: everything we envisaged the theatre we make to be. We couldn’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate the opening of our brand-new home.”
Heng was the first male actor to portray Emily in WILD RICE’s ground-breaking 1999 production, and has since performed the role over 100 times. The production will be completely re-imagined for The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ WILD RICE, a 358-seat venue featuring Singapore’s first thrust stage – inspired by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Ivan Heng is one of Singapore’s most acclaimed actors. Glen Goei is one of Singapore’s most celebrated directors. Together, they bring to life one of Singapore theatre’s most iconic characters: Emily Gan, an abandoned girl who overcomes all odds to emerge as the matriarch of a distinguished Peranakan household.
Evoking the golden age of Straits-Chinese culture from the 1930s, this new production promises to be the most immersive version of Stella Kon’s enduring classic yet. Step into our theatre and become one of Emily’s guests in her opulent, meticulously kept mansion...
In this decadent world, fulfilment for a woman can only be found in her roles as a daughter-in-law, wife, mother and home-maker. So what must she do to succeed? And at what cost? Is Emily a woman trapped by tradition, or a feminist ahead of her time?
In 2000, Ivan Heng founded WILD RICE with an electrifying production of this landmark play, in which he first made Emily Gan his own. We can think of nothing more appropriate to commemorate WILD RICE’s new home.
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