Checkpoint Theatre's Statement Piece asks if Singapore is ready for shocking art

Asked for an example of a work of art that has shocked him, playwright Myle Yan Tay reaches back to the Renaissance.

- Clement Yong

The Dutch master of inventive hellscapes, Hieronymus Bosch, has an unholy clutch on his mind.

"The first time I saw works by him, I was, like, 'Wait, what? When did he make this?'" Tay says in an interview for his new play, Statement Piece.

"I was so shocked that it's been made at all and that it's become a part of history, even though it's so crass and visceral."

While not taking direct inspiration from this experience, Tay's second full-length play, staged by Checkpoint Theatre, is about an imagined work in Singapore that has a similar capacity for shock and outrage.

Tay's debut outing, the acclaimed Brown Boys Don't Tell Jokes (2023), saw five former classmates exchange jibes over race and masculinity in a living room.

Expect once more a claustrophobic touch: Temperatures are raised, this time between a veteran artist, an ambitious gallerist and her artist girlfriend in an art gallery ahead of the exhibition of a controversial work.

It tackles issues in Singapore such as censorship, OB markers and the consequences of artistic daring. For a hint of the nature of the offending piece — tantalisingly covered when this reporter sat in on rehearsals — Tay cites a case in the 1980s in which a Chicago mayor was painted in women's lingerie.

"The city blew up. No riots, but they were completely split down the middle," he says.