Dive
by Laura Hayes WILD RICE Studio @ WILD RICE, Singapore This is not a play about swimming, despite what the poster and title may suggest. But then again, maybe it is. Written by Laura Hayes and directed by Sim Yan Ying (YY), Dive is a tough, unflinching work about two individuals navigating a relationship - sinking, swirling and desperately trying to surface for air. A man and a woman meet at a swimming pool. Both are teenagers - he's in the army and she's a student practising her diving routine. The waters sparkle and the sparks fly. Thus begins a decades-long relationship filled with heartbreak and abuse, one that continues through their high-powered careers as a doctor and lawyer respectively. Through a series of episodes, in both public and private spaces, we see the woman being belittled and gaslit by the man. Something is definitely not right but she's made to feel like she's always in the wrong. The violence is rarely physical but no less excruciating to watch.
