Trilogy

by Haresh Sharma

A collection of three plays by Haresh Sharma that explores the fundamentals of text and realism by scrutinising pressing issues that affect contemporary society. Written between 2006 and 2008, the plays — "Fundamentally Happy", "Good People", and "Gemuk Girls — feature simple but powerful narratives that question personal, social, cultural and political convictions. These award- winning plays represent some of The Necessary Stage's most critically- acclaimed works in recent years and are set to be contemporary classics of Singapore theatre.

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Haresh is Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage and co-Artistic Director of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. To date, he has written more than 100 plays. His play, Off Centre, was selected by the Ministry of Education as a Literature text for N and O Levels, and republished by The Necessary Stage in 2006. In 2008, Ethos Books published Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, Vol. 6, written by Prof David Birch and edited by A/P Kirpal Singh, which presented an extensive investigation of Haresh's work over the past 20 years. A collection of Haresh’s plays have been translated into Mandarin and published by Global Publishing with the title '哈里斯·沙玛剧作选'.

Haresh was awarded Best Original Script for Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Life! Theatre Awards respectively. In 2010, the abovementioned plays have also been published by The Necessary Stage in the collection entitled Trilogy. Most recently in 2011, 2 collections of short plays by Haresh entitled Shorts 1 and Shorts 2 have been published as well. Haresh was also the first non-American to be awarded the prestigious Goldberg Master Playwright by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2011.

Reviews

[Aria · Rating 3 out of 5]

** I've only read Fundamentally Happy since it's the one my lecturer required me to read so my rating is based on that play only.

A play that I found initially annoying due to the characters, but disturbing near the end. It deals with the possible complications involved in/the aftereffects of child molestation and to some extent, Stockholm Syndrome. Although less violent/explosive than Lizard , this still gives off a similar vibe. There are also some modern slang and Singaporean slang present, and some Bahasa Melayu, but this play should be understandable enough even with a lack of knowledge of those aspects. Other than that, I found this slightly clichéd because I’ve already encountered this plot in other works of fiction but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading this. The way things gradually unveiled themselves is rather mind-blowing.

[Theo Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three tremendous plays. Sharma writes with empathy for all his characters. So imaginatively, so inquisitively, so perceptively does he capture situations & scenarios within our society, weaving in complexity and a real heightened sense of drama to create compelling and readable works. i hope to be granted the privilege to one day perform his words.

[Shi-Hsia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this after seeing "Gemuk Girls" at The Necessary Stage. TNC made the decision to translate a lot of the dialogue into Malay and I think it was a good one. The acting was impressive and it actually made me cry, but I think part of the realism was the decision to have a Malay family speak Malay. I also enjoyed reading the other 2 plays in this book but am not sure how much impact they would have on stage in real life as I'm not a big theatre person so can't really imagine it.