Singapore Repertory Theatre's Lungs breaks down the ethics of having kids

If there’s one store which inspires fuzzy thoughts of baby-making, we reckon it’s got to be IKEA – home of cookie-cutter dreams and consumerist desires. Or at least, so begins the Singapore Repertory Theatre ‘s latest production, Lungs.

Perhaps moved by the endless rows of ready-to-assemble creations, one man pops the question of baby creation to his lover. That single question is enough to catapult them into ethical crisis, as they compulsively assemble and tear apart how-tos for building a life in a world of climate change and crippling uncertainty.

Written by award-winning English playwright Duncan Macmillan, Lungs was first staged a decade ago – and if anything, its wit only cuts sharper today. This two-character play is notoriously bare-bones, with Macmillan’s original script being radically stripped of traditional stage elements.

No props; no visual scene shifts; no costume changes. Just two people, on a gritty set of construction-style noise barriers and wooden planks – talking about whether they should have a child.

And talk this couple sure can, free falling breathlessly from eugenics to environmental ethics, planting trees to porn. While the pair are never named, they’re easily relatable for anyone who’s millennial, middle-class, educated, and takes pride in being a ‘thoughtful person’ (which describes most of the audience, we reckon).

Oon Shu An plays the strong-willed, PhD-pursuing woman whose mind – and mouth – speeds along the tracks to anxiety town a million words a minute.

Whether it’s her theoretical baby’s monstrous carbon footprint or the habits that qualify them as good humans, she obsessively calculates the ethics of 21st-century existence to the last decimal.

Too bad, then, that the only thing she can’t compute is the toll her overthinking takes on her partner (played by Joshua Lim ). He’s the wavering support to her bundle of nerves, tossed about in her torrent of ideologies with fewer scruples of his own to hold to.

As she talks herself breathless, he silently suffocates. It’s an eerily familiar scene for those of us who’ve felt drowned in the modern flood of world crises, ethical exhortations, and all-round Bad News on our social feeds.

At first glance, their fretting about the eco-friendliness of popping babies seems almost comical. On second thought, it makes terrifying sense for anyone who cares about doing the ‘right thing’ – as this privileged pair self-consciously, loftily do.

The play doesn’t hesitate to lay bare their hypocrisies, even as it inspires sympathy for their anxieties in an unstable world. It’s easy to relate to their sense of helplessness in the present, and to understand why their baby balloons into a symbol of a better future for the planet. But such airy dreams can only prove abortive.

While Lungs cuts deep, it’s also incredibly funny, thanks to nuanced performances by the cast. Directed by Daniel Jenkins, Oon and Lim deliver their often lengthy lines with fire and finesse, never slackening in intensity.

In movements just as eloquent as their delivery, they play out the growing emotional distance between them. It’s a roller coaster of a play that absolutely rewards watching – buckle up, and don’t forget to breathe.

Lungs runs from June 21 to July 24, 2021 at KC Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Rd, Singapore 239035, p. +65 6733 8166. Tickets are priced from S$55 via SISTIC.

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This article was first published in City Nomads.