SINGAPORE — Talk about dedication. For the coming musical A Nation In Concert 2014: A Wetlands Adventure, the creative team and cast actually went on such an adventure — their first script reading was right smack in the middle of Sungei Buloh.

Directed by Chestnuts boss Jonathan Lim and written by playwright Desmond Sim, it features Patricia Mok and Nora Samosir among others, as well as hundreds of performers from various special-needs groups such as the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN), Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA), The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) and Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH). Presented by the Rotary Club of Pandan Valley, previous versions were staged in 2005, 2006 and 2008. It’s a fun show that takes on various types of wildlife in the wetlands — just don’t make fun of Jonathan Lim’s fish.

RANTS

SEAFOOD JOKES ABOUT MY FISH COLLECTION

People think it’s funny to make seafood jokes when I post photos of my collection of freshwater monster fish. I’ve been collecting for only about two years, but their monstrous beauty is captivating and calming, and I do not appreciate comments about sambal and chips and sashimi. Would you appreciate comments about your pet cat or dog’s potential tastiness?

THEATRE BY NUMBERS

When people think it’s okay to simply cut and paste elements of a show together and sell it on a big name, without taking a humble, sincere journey to the heart of the play and bringing something precious back to share with the audience. There are countless better amusements than theatre that is merely “entertaining” or “showy”. But when a show mines deep and taps the mother lode of truth — then there is nothing as powerful and transforming.

MINDLESS STOMP-ING

Students embracing in a car park — how is that any of your business? Someone save us from the petty-minded and mean-spirited.

RAVES

SAMBAL KANGKONG

Alone, with plain rice. That’s a mini holiday, right there.

SINGAPORE’S ANCIENT PAST

Still shrouded in quasi-mythical mist, our early history is so much richer and grander than the post-1819 corporate profile. I want to plunge deep into those rich possibilities — palaces on Fort Canning, ancient monasteries teaching Sanskrit, undecipherable writings on mysterious rocks. I believe our commitment to this island’s soil can deepen only if we embrace the history of the soil. That’s why I’m working on The Cock-Eye Club (with support from the SG50 Fund), an interactive treasure-hunt app that uncovers Singapore’s hidden mysteries!

HOW PERFORMING TRANSFORMS PEOPLE

Doing A Nation In Concert for the fourth time, I am still deeply moved and wildly thrilled at how social stigmas and the burden of public perception just fall away when people start singing and dancing. You see them as dancers in wheelchairs, hearing-impaired hip-hop dancers, special-needs percussionists — but when the music begins, the magic takes over and humanity triumphs in joy.

A Nation In Concert 2014: A Wetlands Adventure is on Nov 8, 3pm and 7.30pm, at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands. Tickets from S$35 to S$90 at SISTIC.