Interview: Breaking boundaries in Queer East Festival

Chng Yi Kai discusses When the cloud catches colours

This spring, writer and director Chng Yi Kai brings When the cloud catches colours to The Pit, Barbican, as part of Queer East, a festival that showcases boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts, and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities. It is a visually intriguing production that really caught our eye, so we were pleased when we were given the opportunity to ask Chng to tell us about it and its themes.

Thanks very much for talking with us today Chng. Firstly, can you tell us a little about the story and characters within the show?

When the cloud catches colours is a play based on true accounts of two queer individuals in Singapore who are struggling to find a sense of safety while ageing as a queer person in an unaccepting society. Qing is struggling after ending a long-term relationship with his partner of 20 years. E is the sole-caregiver to a mother who doesn’t accept her.

These stories are also taking take place against the backdrop of a significant milestone in Singapore’s history: the repealing of Penal Code’s Section 377A which criminalises sex between men. What is interesting though, is that it was the British colonial government that introduced this legislation in 1938 under their colonial rule. But we also wonder, how does this repeal truly impact the community? 

What inspired you to use the stage as a medium to engage with these issues? And can you tell us about how the extraordinary staging articulates the story?

I noticed many older queer individuals want to share their stories, but many of them do not feel safe to do so openly. So, I wanted to use the form of verbatim theatre to offer real and honest stories from the community yet allowing for some ‘safe distance’ between the stories and their true identities. The set design was conceptualised closely with Set Designer, Lim Wei Ling, and we wanted to portray the characteristics of ‘safety’ (or lack thereof) that the Singapore queer community experiences. The spatial design can be set up to offer spaces of safety, solace, or home for the characters, yet in just a change of a moment, these spaces can collapse suddenly. Shifting and transforming as the stories progress, we intended for the staging to remind us of the transient and fragile realities of many queer individuals. 

How did you go about researching and compiling the verbatim accounts the script is based on?

In 2023, I started doing an open call on some queer platforms and sought contacts from local queer groups. Originally, I did want to compile quite a few stories (which is usual of many documentary theatre pieces), but after some interviews, I soon realised the experiences of losing a long-term relationship and estranged relationship with families are two of the most common issues that the older queer individuals face. And so, I thought to talk about the experience of queer-ageing through an in-depth reflection of two particular stories, which fundamentally serve as ‘windows’ that open up for us to see the larger issues and experiences of the queer community. 

The work was first staged in Singapore and now it is travelling the world. Is this a story that seems familiar in other places or is there a unique quality to its Southeast Asian root?

I think the theme of queerness, ageing and sense of safety is quite universal. I participated in a ‘residency’ program in Tokyo Arts Festival (Farm) exploring the utopic potentialities of being Queer AND Asian, and during the stint, I showed snippets of the play with the locals. It was interesting that the stories also resonated very well with the international community at the festival! However, I’d say certain textures of the play are still rooted in certain ‘Asian qualities’ – whatever that may mean. For example, the decision or impact of coming out as a queer person to our families is quite different for Asians – where value systems like filial piety, different religions, familial sensibilities (etc.) tend to be a bit more complex and layered. 

The show is performed in English, Mandarin and Singaporean Hokkien, with English surtitles. Why did you want to combine these multiple languages to tell the tale?

Because this is how many languages people speak in Singapore! As this is a verbatim theatre, the script is also based on interview transcripts, which naturally encompass this mix of colourful languages, vocabularies and grammar styles. We are excited to showcase this uniquely Singaporean story through these languages to the UK audiences at The Barbican.

Thanks very much to Chng for talking with us today. When the cloud catches colours runs at The Pit, Barbican from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 April 2025. Further information and booking details can be found here.

Queer East Festival runs at venues across London from 23 April to 18 May 2025.