Therapy in new Temple

Talking to the 10 co-creators of the play Temple Reconstructed is a little like holding a therapy session.

"Harrowing", "torturous" and "difficult" were just some of the adjectives used to describe the creation of the work, which will be presented by Cake Theatrical Productions from Nov 14 to 16 at the Drama Centre Black Box.

Suffice to say, the past year has not been a cakewalk for these inaugural participants of the experimental theatre company's training platform, In A Decade.

Temple Reconstructed is their graduation project of sorts. Their first piece together, One Day In This Place, was directed and written by Hennedige and staged earlier this year.

This time, the eclectic group (whose members include a theatre lecturer and a legal counsel) is creating the work almost entirely on their own.

The piece is a brand-new work, but takes its inspiration from Cake's Temple, a polarising abstract work that premiered at the Singapore Arts Festival in 2008.

It focused on a group of characters who lock themselves in a sports hall to escape the corruption of the outside world.

Temple was nominated in 10 categories at the 2009 Life! Theatre Awards, winning for Best Actress, Best Sound Design and Best Costume Design.

Participants of In A Decade watched a video documentation of Temple, discussed it and started work.

Hennedige says: "One of the participants, Faizal, said to me, is it okay if we come in with a wrecking ball and demolish it, and I said, of course.

"By all means, go ahead, take that wrecking ball, demolish that Temple and create your own building."

In a nutshell, Temple Reconstructed starts out with seven characters who witness a suicide, and their journey unfolds from that point.

Hennedige selected Temple because she felt it was a work in Cake's history that was both difficult and defining.

She adds: "It was really alive in where we were and what we wanted to do... It was also harrowing. It was a torturous process. It was the most torturous by far."

"It's very reassuring to hear that," deadpanned participant Luke Kwek, 32, a legal counsel, to a chorus of laughter. He is one of the writers of the work.

Stage manager Chia Jiayan, 26, who works in human resources, had watched Temple in 2008.

She says with a laugh: "I watched it twice, actually, because I didn't understand it the first time around. And foolishly, I thought if I watched it a second time, I would be able to understand it a little bit better.

"I really liked it - there was a whole emotional journey behind it. I remember feeling this whole sense of desperation and things building up inside and I thought, wow. I struggled with it for many years, but there was this emotional connection I had with the piece even though I couldn't understand it."

Now that the group has thoroughly excavated the work, however, they have an entirely different view of the piece.

Each participant was assigned a specific role - whether director, playwright, lighting designer or producer - that he or she would tackle as part of the process of Temple Reconstructed to gain some real-life exposure to working in the theatre industry.

In addition, because all of the participants have full-time jobs, they must rehearse after hours and on weekends.

Freelance actress Ellison Tan, 24, says of the theatre-making process: "In the past, we've always taken it for granted as actors. Everything just appeared for us: the set, the props, the music - it was fun."

She pauses, then her shoulders sag: "Now, this is... fun."

Tan, who is one of the show's producers, adds: "I think we can safely say that we will work even harder because we know that nothing comes easy... You are not a true practitioner until you've done everything in the theatre."

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