Secondary: The Musical

written and composed by weish
Checkpoint Theatre
Victoria Theatre, Singapore

Every decade, it seems, delivers a work that richly interrogates the Singapore education system. The 1990s gave us Haresh Sharma's Those Who Can't, Teach, the 2000s brought Jack Neo's I Not Stupid and the 2010s offered Faith Ng's Normal. The 2020s will no doubt be remembered for the gift that is Secondary: The Musical, written and composed by local music wunderkind weish. Directed and dramaturged by Huzir Sulaiman, this 2024 season opener by Checkpoint Theatre is the company's most ambitious production yet and one that has kept audiences buzzing throughout its run. 

Secondary: The Musical follows the life of young literature teacher Zhao Lilin who is about to begin her final term at the fictitious Huxley Secondary School before heading off to ministry headquarters for a prestigious new posting. In the meantime, she has to deal with her academically underperforming Secondary 3 form class which includes best friends Omar, Ming and Reyansh. Juggling the demands of students, parents, administrators and the strictures of a relentless system, Lilin finds herself constantly torn between her head and her heart. 

The opening number brilliantly displays this tension with a single word, "aiya", a colloquial expression that so perfectly conveys the exasperation a teacher feels on a daily basis. This in turn is conjured up through an Inside Out-like ensemble comprising feelings like Empathy, Humour, Panic, Cynicism, Optimism and Discipline, who scrutinise every thought, action or word of Lilin's. weish's six years as a literature teacher infuse the text with a rich authenticity and deep compassion for the struggles of both students and teachers as they seek to navigate a system that is deeply flawed, one where success is measured by a grade. 

And indeed, part of what makes this production resonate so deeply is weish's extraordinary power to move through her words and music. My first experience of this was in Checkpoint's pandemic-era digital showcase Two Songs and a Story, where she delivered an arresting number about trauma and healing. Here, in her inimitable vocal style, she crafts songs that are both ethereal and energetic, hilarious and heartbreaking. Songs that creep into our consciousness and linger a long time after they are over. "Girl of Fifteen" charts the simultaneous thrill and terror of being a teenager, "Buang Aku" expresses the ragged pain of parental rejection and "On Paper", easily one the show's most powerful numbers, could well be an anthem for life in this results-oriented country. 

Huzir coaxes naturalistic and deeply nuanced performances from his cast. Genevieve Tan confidently carries the show as Lilin, conveying the complexity of an educator who has to wear many hats throughout the day. Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai dazzles as prim, poised Head of Literature Mandy Thomas. Teoh Jun Vinh very nearly steals the show as Mathematics teacher Charlie Chu, who dispenses dad jokes and pearls of wisdom in equal measure like a plaid vending machine. It will be some time before I forget the defeated face of Tricia Tan's Ming when she learns that she does not make the cut academically, the wide-eyed fear of Shaheed Nasheer's Omar at being sent to the Discipline Master and perhaps above all, the grin of Krish Natarajan's Reyansh, the privileged yet socially awkward kid with a heart of gold. 

Photo Credit: Nicholas Yeo/Checkpoint Theatre

Yet as much as Secondary: The Musical makes my heart soar, part of me also wishes it had strived for more. It recycles tropes we've seen many times before: the rookie teacher torn between kindness and pragmatism, the kid from an underprivileged background struggling to make the grade, a system that prioritises academic over artistic merit. It may be beautifully written and performed but feels a little stale thematically. I would have loved to see a different angle of school life or the education landscape being explored instead of a focus on the usual student-teacher dynamics. 

While there is immense care in crafting these characters, the text also tries to cram in as many stories as possible. Do we need an entire song about Mandy Thomas and her preference for books from the Western canon? Repeated scenes featuring bumbling key appointment holders? A token Malay auntie who shuffles in every once in a while to offer snacks to the kids? These are no doubt engaging but end up making the production far longer than it needs to be. The second half, in particular, could do with some editing. 

On the production front, two elements in particular stand out. Petrina Dawn Tan's impressive set features a sweeping staircase, single tree and halo-like light fixture bearing the school name. It smacks of cold corporate efficiency, a glossy space that could be situated anywhere from an office to an airport, only seeking to reinforce the commoditisation of the education experience. Max Tan's costumes are simple but quietly subversive. All students wear the same white shirt with the school crest but the boys have one trouser leg in grey and one in black while the girls have pleated skirts of varying lengths. It's almost suggestive of the quiet voice of individuality lurking beneath the conformity that the system demands.  

Secondary school is such a universal experience that it's hard for Secondary: The Musical not to strike a chord with anyone who watches it. I was jolted back almost viscerally to my own teenage years, a period when I cared deeply about the most trivial of things and ultimately sought solace in whatever I could to get me through the day. A towering achievement for a first-time writer and another shining star in Checkpoint's constellation of powerful, resonant Singaporean stories. 

The Crystalwords score: 4/5