Derek, a high ranking civil servant, is tasked with a herculean assignment of finding soul for the nation. His search leads him to three wildly different individuals – a communist, a fighter of the arts, and a mama-san, who all claim to have the million-dollar answer. Who has the answer? And will Derek ever find soul?



Written by Tan Tarn How, the script was presented to the Public Entertainment Licensing Unit (Pelu) in 1991, where they had issues among things that included, “unfavourable portrayal of civil servants” and “committees being described as ineffective and useless”. The script was later returned to Theatreworks with more than 90 markings in it. It resulted in a version of the play, directed by Ivan Heng and presented by Theatreworks at the Blackbox in 1992, as a public reading.

The play was first fully staged in 1993 when the unedited script was passed clean by the National Arts Council (NAC), under the new guidelines set out by the Censorship Review Committee (CRC). It was directed by Ong Ken Sen, and its cast featured the veritable who's who of Singapore today including Gerald Chew, Jacintha Abisheganaden, Lim Yu Beng, Lim Kay Tong and Rani Moorthy.

In 2001, it was staged and directed by original cast member, Gerald Chew. Reviewed by the Flying Inkpot, the production was described as, “skilfully executed” and “full of nice touches”.

Its satirical approach towards themes such as civil service, gender, sexuality, censorship and the socio-cultural aspects of a nation not only made this play a landmark in the theatre scene, but also of the socio-political climate in Singapore. Coupled with rap sequences and colourful taglines, it raises controversial concerns without explicit mentions. Such word play and witty satirical methods contributes to the thought-provoking element of the play.


With the advent of technology, we now present The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine with multimedia presentations in the narrative. This added dimension would help in heightening the play, and also providing aesthetic qualities that would not have been possible back in 1992.