SINGAPORE — Homegrown theatre company Toy Factory will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. And to kick off the celebrations, it is reviving its most popular production Titoudao in March.

First staged in 1994 and last presented in 2007, the iconic play written and directed by its artistic director Goh Boon Teck based on his mother’s life as a famous Chinese opera artist, will be the first of three big productions this year. In June, the company will be staging a show about Singapore’s Chinese theatre scene for the past 50 years, in collaboration with the Esplanade. They will also be restaging of Singapore’s first Chinese musical, December Rains, in August.

But it is Titoudao that holds a special place in Goh’s heart. He wrote it in 1994 after realising his mother — and her Chinese opera colleagues — were not getting any younger. “That was the reason I penned this. It’s really all about her stories,” he said.

Staged as a play-within-a-play set in the 1940s, it traces the story of Goh’s mother, Madam Oon Ah Chiam, through all the ups and downs in her wayang career. The title refers to the most famous character she has played, the male servant Titoudao. And Madam Oon herself is stoked. She has acted as consultant for the restagings — this will be the fifth time in Singapore, and it has also been staged in Egypt and China — and said “every incarnation has been better than the previous one”.

The latest restaging will be done by a new cast, including Josephine Tan, Rei Poh, Daphne Quah, Benita Cheng, Trev Neo, Trey Ho, Timothy Wan and Audrey Luo, who plays the titular character and takes over from Pam Oei, who had made the character her own in the previous productions. Goh said the decision to get new faces — many of whom had not even seen previous Titoudao incarnations — was a conscious one, to bring new perspectives into the play. “I do enjoy the process of finding a new interpretation or new look for the show,” he said.

Actress Josephine Tan remembered her first encounter with Titoudao in 2007, with its star-studded cast that included Oei, Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Sebastian Tan, Karen Tan, Chua Enlai and Judee Tan. “It looked incredible and it’s now incredible to be a part of it,” she said.

Fellow performer Rei Poh has never seen Titoudao staged, but the idea of bringing to life a traditional art form such as Chinese opera is something he’s pondered.

“It’s the reality that traditional arts could be dying and one way to keep them alive is by reinvention, which is what we’re doing,” he said, citing how traditional Chinese puppetry has been something addressed in works like Kuo Pao Kun’s Lao Jiu and productions by The Theatre Practice, Paper Monkey and The Finger Players. “(But) how many are doing this for Chinese opera?” he queried.

Added Josephine: “Some people treat (traditional art forms) as a museum pieces but is that the way to attract audiences?”

Nonetheless, the cast has been getting into the wayang way of life to get their bearings. To prepare for the show, Goh once brought them to Pulau Ubin to experience its kampong vibe, and they’ve also taken it a step further: A one-day crash course workshop and impromptu performance with the real Madam Oon’s opera troupe, Xin Yang Ling, at a temple in Yishun.

“They had their own discipline and then you had all these Western theatre-trained actors (coming in) and they messed it up. It was quite fun,” Goh good-naturedly recalled.

“The audience was quite forgiving,” quipped Josephine.

Titoudao runs from March 5 to 15, 8pm, Drama Centre Theatre. With 3pm weekend matinees. Tickets from S$49 to S$69 at SISTIC.