IQ.Rock

Playwright: Khairi Anwar (Kuala Lumpur)

Azim is preparing for a very important public examination that could be a life-changing opportunity for him to get rid of the impoverished village he lives in Malaysia. Born and bred in the rural district of Malaysia, both his parents are illiterate rubber tappers. Azim helps his father tap rubber every morning. Azim has a love for reading and because of it, he has a deep curiosity about the world outside his home.

The lives of Azim and his fellow students changed when Mary, a veteran English teacher known for teaching in urban elite schools, arrived to take up the challenge of teaching the rural school. Now in her 50s, Mary decided that it is time to make use of her vast teaching experience and make a difference in an area where English is a perennial failed subject in the public examination.

Despite her good intentions, her students found her unrelatable in the beginning due to their different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. However, Azim is the lone student that gives her a lot of faith and hope. Through focusing her English teachings with Azim, Mary bonds with her other students while learning about their lifestyle, mentality and challenges through empathy, tolerance, friendship, trust and sacrifice.

E.S.D.F.

Playwright: Lin Meng Huan (Taichung)

Available only in Chinese

Docuanimal

Playwright: Olga Macrinici (Chisinau)

The play is based on interviews with real people whose lives are deeply connected to animals: a pet shop seller, a hunter, a horse-riding trainer, a homeless person. Their monologues are interlaced with scenes from our everyday life about the way we come in touch with animals. Besides the human characters, you will also find the animal ones – The Doe, Coco – the cheerful Jako, and Bella – the dog. Their presence is essential in the play – as they help us understand the way the human-animal bond has developed in our days.

Some of the questions the characters from Docuanimal ask themselves are: When did we start taking animals for granted? Why did they become objects in our lives? Who are we eating today for dinner? What if we wake up tomorrow and there would be no animal left?

Though the topic of the play is a delicate one, it is far from being a sad one, as the situations are full of irony and surprises that offer a good opportunity to talk about our relationship to animals in a non-judgmental, borderless and friendly way.

The Sweetness of a Sting

Playwright: Chinonyerem Odimba (London)

Badger’s parents decide they want to return to their home country, so he is confronted with the possibility of leaving everything he knows and becoming a visitor in a strange world. Attempting to run away and escape his parents’ plans, Badger finds himself in a world full of insects, stories and Thunder – a land beneath our feet that he cannot escape from. This fantastical story looks at what it means to be young – disconnected from nature, and from your identity.

Grimm Adventures – A Reimagination of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Playwrights: Dr Vicki Ooi (Hong Kong) & Thomas Lawson (London)

Super Heroes, Super Fairytales!
Can Super Red Riding Hood, leader of the Forest Fists work together with Wolf, Thumbling and the Little Tailor to defeat evil? Will Hansel and Gretel be saved from the Witch and find their way back home?