SINGAPORE – In a professional theatre industry where weeks of arduous rehearsals for actors are the norm, two young theatremakers are flipping the script. Across four shows of Getting To Know You, four pairs of actors are invited to cold perform a script they have not only not rehearsed but also never laid eyes on.

It might sound like a radical proposition, but 32-year-old theatremaker Edward Eng – who is writing and co-directing the show – says his approach merely returns to the roots of live performance. He says: “In Shakespeare’s time, and in bangsawan and performance traditions in South-east Asia, you get your text very close to the time you go on stage and sometimes are not directed beforehand in a rehearsal.”

The experimental performance by Gangguan Theatre plays four shows at the Goodman Arts Centre Black Box from Sept 10 to 13, opening with a performance by theatre veterans Noorlinah Mohamed and Karen Tan. The other actor pairs are Risa Ann Wong and Xuan Ong (Sept 11); Sharda Harrison and Lian Sutton (Sept 12); and Izzul Irfan and Vanessa Toh (Sept 13).