Actors Yusuf Amin and Grace Ng with director Dinesh (centre) (All photos: Jazzie Lee)
To put it lightly, the world feels bleaker than ever. Even as wildfires licking at Indonesia’s islands send smoke wafting over the peninsula, the oppressive heatwave simmering across the planet is leaving people, flora and fauna wilting under its weight.
Are these conditions suitable to bring in new life? Climate anxiety aside, couples today are also grappling with financial pressures, ethical dilemmas and changing relationship dynamics, forcing them to rethink parenthood altogether.
Written by English playwright Duncan Macmillan, Lungs delves into this familiar conversation, where even the mere mention of having a kid upturns a calm afternoon shopping in Ikea. The story follows a young couple dealing with the sudden rush of emotion brought on by the topic.
Drifting Kaos Productions founder Dinesh Maganathan is marking his directorial debut with a restaging of the humorous yet devastating play. Looking back on what spurred his choice, he recalls an exchange two years prior with his wife when they were attending theatre shows. “We had been watching experimental ones and she asked me: ‘Are you ever going to bring me to a proper, scripted play?’” he laughs. “I told her then, 'I know of one, and I want to stage it for you.'”
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Lungs immediately came to mind. Dinesh and his partner went through the play’s script and realised the characters were having strikingly similar discussions to their own. “These people have very honest, real conversations, and that’s what I like about Lungs. It doesn’t give you the answers. It is not preachy, and doesn’t tell you to think a certain way. It just shows two people having really honest and raw talks, which is reflective of true life.”
Starring Grace Ng and Yusuf Amin, the show navigates a conversation that stretches across years and different places, jumping from the comfort of the couple’s bedroom to the noise of a club and the serenity of a public park. Through it all, their discussion spirals from personal worries, commitment and guilt, unfolding in outbursts, thinly veiled sarcasm and tender vulnerability.
Their relationship becomes a living thing on its own, with the pair serving as its lungs with their rapid-fire dialogue. Its breath catches in moments of dissent when the lovebirds worry they will end up like their parents and that the world could collapse entirely based on their choice to have a child. The tension seeps out just as quickly through little jokes, laughter and banter over the hypothetical joys a little one could bring into their future.
The production’s strongest suit is its focus on the actors. There are scarcely any props, sets, scene changes or costumes for the entirety of the 90-minute run time. The spotlight rests entirely on their monologues and shared moments. “Based on what they say and how they navigate their relationship, you’ll be able to tell these people have been with each other for a while,” divulges Dinesh. “They won’t say it outright, but rather their relationship is implied through how they speak to one another and how comfortable they are.
“Whichever stage in life you are at, whether you have a child, are simply boyfriend and girlfriend, or are thinking about marriage… these conversations will make you think about the ones you have had, or if you should have something similar in the future. How are we actually communicating with one another? Are we as explosive? Are we not saying things that we actually want to say? Or are we in a healthy place where we can share how we actually feel?”
At its core, Lungs is a mirror for a new generation navigating adulthood and its various challenges. Though its main themes of political instability and climate change are still relevant, if not more pressing, its message rings clear — that a relationship takes work, love, anger, understanding, compromise and willingness, wrapped in a single body with two beating hearts.
'Lungs' is being staged at klpac until Aug 30. Buy tickets here.
