SEED

“Eat something. Most of the time we need things even before we understand why we want them.”

A wife travels with her dead husband to his hometown in an unknown place for a final meal with the family. Elsewhere, a woman leaves food outside her door for her lost cat but it is consumed by something else. Yet elsewhere, a mother guides her daughter one last time in the preparation of a meal. In the aftermath of great loss, each person feels the pangs of a spiritual hunger that may only be satiated by the rituals of eating, feasting and fasting.

‘SEED’ is a work that is planted in the soil of this impossible ‘something’, growing out of abysmal grief to bear the bittersweet fruits of reconciliation. The ambivalence of mourning is evoked in the Japanese title of the play Ueru, which can mean ‘to grow’ and ‘to be hungry’. Disoriented by tragedy, each character is guided by the primal instinct to eat as they find each other to share a meal, and to find that life continues to grow in spite of the trauma of  disaster.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Director / Playwright: Chong Tze Chien
Starring: Atsushi Hirabuki (Japan), Futoshi Moriyama (Japan) , Mizue Takeuchi (Japan), Nguyen Bao Tram (Vietnam), Tomomi Yonezu (Japan), Tsuyoshi Kondo (Japan), Yui Terada (Japan), Yuta Tsuchida (Japan)
Lighting Designer: Lim Woan Wen
Sound Artist & Music Composer: Darren Ng

REVIEWS

”Director and playwright Chong Tze Chien does not speak Japanese but has coaxed such a riveting performance from his Japanese cast that members of the audience around me, whether or not they spoke the language, leaned forward and laughed and sighed and held their breath in tandem with the action on stage.”
– The Straits Times

“Gently and slowly, the audience is brought to its bittersweet ending…”
– That Interval

“In its examination of human nature amidst personal and social crises, Seed offers much food for thought and is an experience that is immensely satisfying.”
– Today Online