Written and staged in 1964, A White Rose at Midnight is one of the earliest Singaporean plays. It depicted relatable local characters and reflected the turbulent, uncertain state of society at the time. Not only does it act as a theatrical time capsule of 1960's Singapore, it continues to find relevance in the present day. In 2014, Centre 42 presented The Vault 1.1 - Nineteen Sixty-Four, a lecture-performance that included an investigation of the text of A White Rose at Midnight, contextualised by reflections from veteran actors and local news articles from the 1960's.

This year, Centre 42 looks forward to commemorating the 60th anniversary of A White Rose at Midnight through a Vault presentation with students from the National University of Singapore's Theatre and Performance Studies course. Join us for their performance-response, The TRUE Awards, on 11 and 12 April, and click below to find out more about A White Rose at Midnight, The Vault 1.1 - Nineteen Sixty-Four, and Singapore's theatre scene in the 1960s!

PUBLICATIONSA White Rose at Midnight

On the cusp of independence, cultures collide in a bedroom in Singapore. The English-educated scholar Hua Min is disillusioned until he meets the Chinese-educated ex-nightclub singer Ching Mei. When Su-Ling, Hua Min's ex-classmate, returns from London, Hua Min is torn between the women's advances. Humorous, witty and prescient, A White Rose At Midnight is a pithy portrait of a soul—and nation—divided. A White Rose At Midnight was first staged to critical acclaim by the Experimental Th

Lim Chor Pee

Published: 2015

PEOPLELim Chor Pee

Lim Chor Pee (1936 - 2006) was a pioneer in the English-language theatre here in the early ‘60s. He was a playwright, the founder of the Experimental Theatre Club, a theatre theorist and a passionate advocate for the forging of a theatre scene with an authentic Singapore identity and voice. Although he stopped writing after 1964 to practise law and become a famous commercial and corporate litigator, his endeavours in theatre helped to highlight issues of decolonisation and identity in the post-colonial Sing

THE VAULT RESIDENCYThe Vault 1.1 – Nineteen Sixty-Four

1964 – Singapore was part of Malaysia. 1964 – The year of racial riots between ethnic Chinese and Malays. 1964 – The year when two pioneering Singaporean dramatists wrote English-language plays in response to the lack of local plays that reflected recognisable themes, characters and speech. Prior to 1964, Lim Chor Pee’s Mimi Fan (1962) stood alone in the scene. In 1964, Goh Poh Seng wrote his first play and then, there were two. 2014 – We respond to these two writers’ sophomore creations resp

Start: 22 September 2014

ESSAYS & WRITINGSWhat’s on? The (unofficial) theatre guide in 1964

Here’s a sampling of what a theatre-goer could possibly watch back in 1964:

Daniel Teo

Published: 13 September 2014

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