Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan,[1] TNS was established with its own mission to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches the heart and mind.
The plays are original, mostly devised pieces created in a collaborative process that is based on research, improvisation before scripting, and input from all members of the production.
Mobile also toured to Kuala Lumpur following its world premiere in Singapore for a 3-day run at The Actors Studio in Bangsar, as well as at Setagaya Public Theatres in Tokyo in March 2007.
Gemuk Girls was a three-hander, featuring a mother-daughter duo Kartini (a loud and overbearing hippie mother) and Juliana (a straitlaced young woman on the threshold of entering politics).
The play dealt with the controversial issue of ex-political detainees and detention without trial, but went beyond the political realm to look at how it impacted personal and family life and history.
On the cusp of Japan's surrender during World War II, a Japanese general suffers a stroke and is tended to by a Malay gardener.
As they spar, having heated debates about the war, the present is revealed: a Japanese man in a relationship with an Indian woman in Kuala Lumpur; his ex-wife coming to grips with an astrologer's predictions; their son, studying in the United States and confronted by his classmates about Japan's past.
TNS explored the use of social media in theatre through Poor Thing in February 2014, a work that throws the spotlight on road rage in Singapore.
In the same year, the company created a challenging new intercultural and interdisciplinary production entitled Gitanjali [I feel the earth move] in September 2014.
Most recently in 2015, TNS presented Pioneer (Girls) Generation, featuring an intergenerational cast, with a plot revolving around a posh senior retirement home in Singapore.
To date, the company has performed in Berlin, Birmingham, Busan, Cairo, Dublin, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Khabarovsk, Kuala Lumpur, London, Macau, Melbourne, New Delhi, Rijeka, Seoul, Sibiu, Sziget, Taipei and Tokyo.
For the Manila staging, it was directed by Nicolas Pichay, and showcased a surreal and inertly violent depiction of a Singaporean household whose scheming, double-dealing, and at times cruel transactions negotiated with each other makes for a rather intense sala-set drama.
The production premiered in Singapore in August 2013 before touring to The Actors Studio @ KuAsh Theatre in Kuala Lumpur in September the same year.
Over a 3-year period beginning from April 2008, TNS began the Theatre For Seniors Ensemble (TFS), geared towards training the participants in various aspects of theatre-making and arts administration.
TNS was commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to present a skit on child abuse entitled Sweet Dreams, targeted at primary school students.
In 2007, Off Centre was selected by the Ministry of Education in Singapore as a literature text for the GCE ‘O’ and ‘N’ levels syllabi, and was republished by the company the same year.
The publication, written by Prof David Birch and edited by A/P Kirpal Singh, was an extensive investigation into Sharma's development as a writer.
In 2010, TNS published a new anthology of Haresh's plays entitled Trilogy, including the scripts and production notes of its three award-winning works, Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls.
The script of Those Who Can't, Teach, which was restaged as part of the 2010 Singapore Arts Festival, as well as Model Citizens, have also been published by Epigram Books.
TNS's recent collection of plays is entitled Don’t Forget to Remember Me, dealing with medical issues and launched at the Singapore Writers Festival in November 2013.