3 Queens
by Haresh Sharma The Necessary Stage Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Singapore Time is the greatest villain in The Necessary Stage's 3 Queens , a tender and quietly lacerating examination of friendship that unspools over the course of decades. Written by newly appointed Artistic Director Haresh Sharma and co-directed by Sharma and Adib Kosnan, we visit sisters Bedah (Siti Hajar Gani) and Zeina (Munah Bagharib) and their neighbour Aida (Siti Khalijah Zainal) around Hari Raya every few years. These are three Malay-Muslim women who grew up together, ready to face the world as one, but whose paths slowly diverge as time goes by. We hear of career milestones and failed relationships, death and disease. The everyday dreams and disappointments that fill out a life. Part of the pathos of the play is that we never see the moments that happen between each scene, instead having to fill in the gaps from fragments of conversation, piecing together how time has slowly changed these characters. They dr...
