What makes theatre modern?: an interview with Kuo Pao Kun by Quah Sy Ren

Abstract

ABSTRACT Kuo Pao Kun (1939–2002) was often regarded as the doyen of Singapore theatre. The interview reveals how his theatre practice in the 1960s–1970s worked through Chinese theatre (in both its spoken and more traditional sung forms), Brechtian theatre (with its alienation effect) and modern Russian theatre (in its naturalistic form) in the attempt to form a flexible modern Chinese-language theatre in Singapore that could intellectually engage with the city-state’s economic-development imperatives during the height of the Cold War. This interview is an extract from a longer interview conducted by Quah Sy Ren in 2002.