Chestnuts parodies playwright leaves behind wealth of works

Singapore playwright Jonathan Lim, who founded the beloved Chestnuts parody series, has died aged 50. The news has shocked the theatre community. Family and friends said there had been no outward signs of illness.

- Clement Yong Correspondent

Lim's close friend of 18 years, lawyer Luke Kwek, found him unconscious in his flat on Jan 23 after family members had been unable to contact him.

The two "geeked out about everything together" and had a mutual love for horror films, sometimes watching one a week.

For the intensely private Lim, work always came first, Mr Kwek told The Straits Times. "He was a positive, optimistic person who was so easy to be around, always full of energy. When a project of his ran into trouble and he was not going to get paid, he persevered with it simply because he was so passionate about what he was doing."

Lim's script-writing credits run the gamut from a pantomime adaptation of Charles Dickens (A Singapore Carol, 2018) to a gripping virtual whodunnit (The Bride Always Knocks Twice - Killer Secrets, 2021) to an immersive show where audiences relived Singapore's final stand against the Japanese in a World War II bunker in Fort Canning (No Question Of Surrender, 2024).

His signature Chestnuts revue was a light-hearted roast of local and international current affairs, and was Singapore's longest-running live parody sketch show beginning in 1996.