Tree Duet

by spell#7

1 Mar
University Cultural Centre, NUS
16 - 22 Aug
New Town Theatre (Mysterious), Edinburgh

See also Tree / House


Tree Duet is a meditative performance about our continuing entanglement with trees. Accompanied by pianist Shane Thio, performers Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan combine an intricately interwoven set of stories and reportage with actions and gestures to create a theatrical ecology of sounds, words and images.

Eco-performance minus the moralising, Tree Duet encompasses everything from the history of the Malayan rubber industry to carbon offsetting, the music of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu to the 100 year old Bodhi tree at a soon-to-be-demolished Buddhist temple in Singapore.

In exploring how some of the slow mysteries of tree-time persist in the fast-paced life of a global city, Rae and Tan invent some tree-lore for the 21st Century, and apply it to the vexed relationship between our all too human obsessions with nature, power and death.



Praise for Tree Duet:

“An intimate and immersive work…it reminded us that the individual belongs to the universal. With simple text, it meshed the personal, cultural and historical into an expansive fabric meditating on human existence.” – The Straits Times

“...a stunningly beautiful work of visual poetry that teaches you to look at the world through patient eyes: just as trees need time to grow, so do works of art - but patience will be rewarded in that act of something real, meaningful and magical being created before you.” – Flying Inkpot

Tree Duet was nominated for Best Original Script in the 2008 Life! Theatre Awards. Earlier versions were presented at the Substation’s Septfest 2007, W!ld Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival ’08 and the National University of Singapore’s NUS Arts Festival 2009.

For Flying Inkpot review of an early version, click here.

For Herald review, click here.

For Scotsman review, click here.

Part of the Singapore Showcase at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe.