Singapore, Michigan makes confident debut

Playwright Ong Chong An’s play about adulting and privilege revolves around three young adults on a road trip

- Shawn Hoo

A Singaporean couple and their American classmate drive through a Michigan winter in pursuit of a silly quirk of history - an American ghost town called, perplexingly, Singapore.

Over a blustery weekend, the trio realise that the rest of their lives will not so much be a frivolous jaunt, but a series of calculated choices.

Playwright Ong Chong An's first professional script is an elegant snow globe of a road trip story. It is a finely crafted drama of young adulthood, as the trio, encased in a dingy motel, trade ghost stories, bad takeaway Chinese food and secrets.

Ong's talky script draws out the heightened emotional state that young adults on the cusp of graduation often feel, when every decision appears life-altering.