Audiences are trucked to Singapore's port for a bizarre but thrilling lesson about migrant labour
One of the best-selling performances at this year's Singapore Arts Festival didn't take place in a theatre. The audience was trucked from the Esplanade to the city's huge port, home to foreign workers' dormitories and mountains of cargo containers.
And the "performance" was a lesson in what migrant workers deal with in foreign countries.
Repeating a stunt pulled off in several European and Middle Eastern cities, the German theatre troupe Rimini Protokoll treated 40 people a night for four weeks to "Cargo Kuala Lumpur-Singapore".
The audience was the payload for the two-hour excursion aboard the modified "Cargo Sofia-X" truck driven by two Indian-Malay professional goods-haulers.
It was as if we were being "shipped" from the Malaysian capital to Singapore, and all the while our drivers regaled us with their personal stories.
A screen on one side of the truck rolled up when they wanted us to see what was outside, and back down when they wanted to show videos of the passing highway rather than "out-of-synch" views of Singapore.
The video clips were interspersed with a live feed of the drivers and information about Singapore's shifting policy on foreign workers.
When we entered the container-storage area, our guide appeared on a bicycle and began explaining the different functions of the site.
A dog followed the guide around - I thought it was just a curious mutt, but learned later that there was a dog, and sometimes two, in on the act every day, evidently enjoying its turn "onstage".
Another intriguing "character" appeared at the entrance to the port - a woman carrying two large cardboard boxes.
When the truck climbed to the top of a storage structure later, we circled around her as she sang. Later still, she was singing at the side of a highway, and then riding in a car that passed us.
Finally, when we got back to the Esplanade parking lot, there she was again, still singing!
Our route along the Eastern Coastal Parkway took us past the posh new Marina Bay Sands resort, as if to remind us that foreign workers helped build it too.
These lessons on migration got me thinking about Singapore's Golden Mile, where Thai labourers gather for camaraderie. It's rundown and a long way from the shopping district or any tourist attractions, but it's filled with restaurants serving authentic Thai food at reasonable prices.
The complex has a Thai supermarket, nightclubs and more, and buses depart there bound for Hat Yai. This "mini-Thailand" is where I advise my Singaporean friends to go for real Thai food.
Visitors to the Germany Pavilion at Shanghai's World Expo can experience the journey of the Cargo Sofia-X from August 3 to 31. Shanghai is the last stop on the troupe's three-city Asian tour.
Chinese drivers will take people behind the scenes to see how cargo is transported to the Expo. Check out www.Rimini-Protokoll.de for more details.
The writer's trip was supported by the National Arts Council. Special thanks to Goethe Institut's Moh Siew Lan.