Fringe Foreword — Singapore Fringe Festival 2027

On Belonging

Do you feel like you belong?

Belonging can mean many things. It can mean feeling close to your family, your community, your country, or other people. It can also mean caring deeply about a cause or a belief.

Today, many people use AI for tasks, choices, and even relationships. We let AI think and decide what is moral for us. Do our minds even belong to us?

We live in a divided world. Many countries face political stress. Wars continue. People lose their homes and lives. Land is taken. Whole communities suffer.

Big tech companies go through and control our data. It allows false information to spread fast. This affects how we learn, think, and make choices. AI also brings new risks. Yet, many governments are moving too slowly to protect human rights and human dignity.

Climate change is also getting worse. Climate change is also getting worse very fast. Seven out of nine “planetary boundaries” have gone past the highest level in 2026¹. More people now live in places that are hard or unsafe to stay in. Many lose their homes and their way of making a living. Some take great risks to move elsewhere in search of safety. More people now live in places that are hard or unsafe to stay in. Many lose their homes and their way of making a living. Some take great risks to move elsewhere in search of safety.

With so much happening around us, many people feel lost, tired, and powerless. Some may even feel numb. It can seem like no one is doing enough to stop the unfairness in the world².

Ece Temelkuran is a journalist and author. She says, you’re in your home, but you don’t have a home. You are looking for a better place in this world. But you cannot find a government that shares your anger about the unfairness in the world.

Technology now connects many of us. Yet at the same time, we feel even more alone.

A study was done by the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore. In 2026, it reported that people now have fewer close friends than before. It also found that about one in three young adults often feel isolated or left out. Being connected is not the same as feeling a real bond³.

The wish to belong is a basic human need. We shape who we are through our ties with other people. Our sense of purpose, care, and joy often grows from what we share with others. True belonging comes from real human connection. It also asks us to look beyond ourselves. feel even more alone.

We need to actively reach out to people who feel alone, left out, or unseen. We also need to reach out to people who are different from us. We need to live with care and empathy. We need to be open enough to share our own stories too.

We must also speak up against unfairness and inequality. Solidarity is not just about hashtags or social media posts. It is also about how we live each day. It is in the choices we make, and the actions we take. If we care about belonging and community, then we must do the work to build them.

Mark Carney is the Prime Minister of Canada. He said our societies are shaken by new storms. One tree may fall in a storm. However, a forest can stand. This is because its roots are linked with its neighbours’ underneath the forest floor. When the trees exchange nutrients and combine their strength, the eco-system becomes stronger and sustains itself⁴.

Fringe 2027 Belongs to Everyone

We are really stronger in numbers. Fringe 2027 can only happen because of the support of our artists and audiences. We came together as a community because we believe in what Fringe stands for:

art that is open, bold, and meaningful,
and that speaks to the world we live in now.

This year, we invite you to think about what Belonging means to you. Why do people long to belong? How can we support one another and build strong communities, countries, and systems that help us all thrive?

Fringe 2027 will feature seven bold and thoughtful works. Each one looks at belonging in a different way.

Mexico’s Porta Teatro brings WILMA, a powerful one-woman work. Lebanese choreographer Bassam Abou Diab presents Under the Flesh, a fierce and darkly funny piece. Both works look at belonging in times of violence, loss, and silence.

From Singapore, Birds Migrant Theatre returns with Room. It is a new work made with migrant worker and deaf or hard-of-hearing communities. It looks at belonging through the lives of two groups that are often overlooked.

Malaysian theatre-maker Kumar Muniandy brings Second Class Queer. It is a funny and sharp work set at a gay speed-dating event in Berlin. It looks at the hidden bias that can affect people with more than one marginalised identity.

The Necessary Stage presents Best Of Us. For the first time, it brings together two well-loved monologues about the end of a Malay-Muslim marriage. It looks at the ties that link us to family, friends, culture, and society.

Singapore artist Ali Mazrin makes his debut as playwright and director with Jamil Sekadar Nama (Jamil is Just a Name). This moving work asks what it means to belong to family and community when time is running out.

From South Korea, Poong Deong 풍덩 takes us into the strange and lonely world of a person who wants to belong during a time of crisis. However, she only has a chatbot for company.

For the first time, Fringe 2027 will also include a workshop for young actors. This is led by The Necessary Stage’s Artistic Director Haresh Sharma. It will help them work together to create a new piece based on the theme of belonging. Their works-in-progress will be shared in a free public showcase near the end of the festival.

After the warm response to Fringe 2026’s panel discussions, Fringe 2027 will also include another one. The panel is titled Activism and Art in Singapore: Muted or Revitalised?. It will look at belonging and the role art can play in building community and pushing back against division. The panelists are Bani Haykal, Dayana Noor, Kirsten Han, and Kristian-Marc Paul as panellists. The moderator is Sudhir Vadaketh. We will explore the connection between activism and art. We will also look at the different ways artists and activists draw attention to important causes.

Fringe 2027 invites you to join us this January as we explore belonging together. We will look at the need for connection and the search for kinship in hard times. We also ask you to take a first step:

open your mind,
open your heart,
and welcome people who have faced unfairness or have been pushed aside.

Together, let us bring more people in. We can build a community shaped by empathy, acceptance, and shared joy.

In solidarity,
The Fringe Team

On Belonging

Do you feel like you belong?

By that, we mean a sense of belonging to family, community, nation, or even the human race. Or it could be a bond with a cause you are fighting for, or a belief you hold dear to your heart.

Yet, in this AI-driven age, people are offloading tasks, decisions, and even relationships to algorithms, surrendering cognition and conscience to AI. Do our minds even belong to us?

We live in a fractured world today. Democracies are teetering on the edge. Wars—territorial and economic ones—land grabs, and genocides are being flagrantly waged, decimating populations, ravaging lands, and weakening multilateral institutions.

Big Tech is scouring and controlling our data, allowing the proliferation of disinformation, and altering how we process knowledge and exercise freedom. Added to all that are the alarming threats posed by AI and the sluggish response of states to install effective guardrails for the protection of human rights and dignity.

Meanwhile, we are confronted with an unprecedented acceleration of climate meltdown, with seven out of nine “planetary boundaries” breached at the highest level in 2026¹. Desperate people in unliveable conditions, now bereft of viable livelihoods, put themselves through extreme dangers to move to new lands.

Buffeted by multiple shocks beyond our control, it is hardly surprising that many of us feel unmoored, helpless, and even resigned. After all, who is speaking up for or acting on the injustices around us?

You're in your home, but you are unhomed… You're a moral refugee in this world… there is no political home for your outrage about what's happening in the world.

— Ece Temelkuran, journalist and author²

On an individual front, technology may be making us more connected, but many of us are lonelier than ever. In 2026, the Institute of Policy Studies released its research findings on fraternity amongst Singaporeans. It indicated that Singaporeans³ now have fewer close friends than before, with young adults aged between 21 to 34 reporting “roughly one in three often feeling isolated or left out.” Clearly, connection does not equate with communion.

The longing to belong is a fundamental human desire, and to belong, a quintessential human need. Our identities are forged in relation with other people, our beliefs reaffirmed when braided in kinship. In this age of self-care and self-optimisation, we often forget that true wellbeing, a sense of purpose, and happiness are inextricably linked to how much of ourselves we give to other people. Belonging is ultimately rooted in genuine human connection and capacity to go beyond ourselves.

We must be proactive in reaching out to those who may be alienated or lonely, and importantly, to those who are different from us. We must live with compassion and empathy, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to share our own stories. We must courageously speak out against injustice and inequality to show solidarity—not just through hashtags or social media posts, but demonstrating it in how we live our everyday lives, in the decisions we make, and in the actions we take. If we care about our society and value belonging and community, then we need to do the labour as well.

Today, our societies are shaken by new storms… A single tree will come down in it. A forest will not. And that's because beneath the forest floor, the roots of an oak intertwine with those of its neighbours, exchanging nutrients, adding strength to strength, creating a resilient, self-sustaining ecosystem.

— Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, 17 September 2026⁴

Fringe 2027 Belongs to Everyone

We are, indeed, stronger in numbers. Fringe 2027 is a testament to that because it is only with the generous support of our artists and audience that this wholly ground-up festival can take place. We rallied together as a community because we believe in what the Fringe represents: inclusive, accessible, yet provocative art that resonates with current socio-political issues and speaks to our lived experiences.

For Fringe 2027, we invite you to contemplate on what the theme Belonging means to you, why the longing to belong is innately human, and how we can hold one another up and build resilient communities, nations, and ecosystems that promote our collective flourishing.

2027’s edition of the Fringe will expand to feature seven bold and thought-provoking productions, each delving into belonging in different ways. Mexico’s Porta Teatro’s visceral one-woman piece WILMA and the searing and darkly humorous Under the Flesh by Lebanese choreographer Bassam Abou Diab examines the politics of belonging in situations of carnage, annihilation, and silencing of communities. On the home front, our very own Birds Migrant Theatre returns to the Fringe line-up with an exciting collaboration between the migrant worker and deaf/ hard-of-hearing communities. Titled Room, this work explores belonging through the lenses of two communities often hidden or ignored in society.

The hilarious Second Class Queer by Malaysian theatre-maker Kumar Muniandy takes you on a journey through a gay Berlin speed-dating event, to expose the subtle prejudices set within the intersection of marginalised identities embodied within a single person.

The Necessary Stage’s Best Of Us presents, for the first time, two wildly popular monologues about the dissolution of a Malay-Muslim marriage and the ties that bind us to our family, friends, ethnic identity, and the wider society. Likewise, Ali Mazrin (Singapore) debuts as a playwright and director in the reflective and heart-wrenching Jamil Sekadar Nama (Jamil is Just a Name), which ponders on belonging to family and community—but this time with urgency, when one’s time is finite.

Meanwhile, Poongdive 풍덩 (South Korea) immerses us into the surreal solitary world of a protagonist who desires to belong in a time of disaster—but only has her chatbot for company.

For the first time, Fringe 2027 will also incorporate an intensive workshop for up-and-coming actors to collaborate and create a work-in-progress centred on the theme of Belonging. The Necessary Stage’s Artistic Director Haresh Sharma will lead selected participants through a programme that imparts the company’s devising methodology, towards a free public showcase of their works-in-progress near the end of the festival calendar.

Given the wonderful reception and candid sharing by arts practitioners and members of the public alike at Fringe 2026’s panel discussions. Fringe 2027 will once again include a panel discussion on aspects of belonging and the role that art can play to invigorate and bolster community-building while rejecting polarisation. Activism and Art in Singapore: Muted or Revitalised? promises to be an afternoon of invigorating conversation featuring Bani Haykal, Dayana Noor, Kirsten Han, and Kristian-Marc Paul as panellists, moderated by Sudhir Vadaketh. We will explore how activism and art have a natural affiliation, as well as the different strategies artists and activists employ to draw attention to important causes in this current climate.

Fringe 2027 invites you to traverse the terrains of belonging with us come January. As we dive into the facets of longing for communion with others and finding kinship in tumultuous times, we entreat you also to make the first step: to widen your perspectives, throw open the doors to your heart, and welcome those who have been suffering injustice, or who have been cast to the sidelines.

Together, let’s bring everyone into the fold, and create a thriving community of empathy, acceptance, and mutual joy.

In solidarity,
The Fringe Team

¹Planetary Boundaries Science (PBScience), 2026. "Planetary Health Check 2026". Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.

²Transcript of "an interview" between Ece Temelkuran and Eliza Anyangwe (27 January 2026), Fuller.

³Thomas, Nicolas, Wong, Kang Li, and Goh, Wilson, "The other recession risk that Singapore should be wary of", 22 July 2026, Institute of Policy Studies.

⁴"Speech"by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the European Parliament, Thursday 17 September 2026. PhotoS CREDITS
1.WILMA by Porta Teatro (Mexico), Irma Monterrubio

2.Second Class Queer by Kumar Muniandy (Germany & Malaysia), Josip Bolonić & Sara Moralo

3.From the Trembling World by Poong Deong (풍덩) (South Korea), Photographed by Poong Deong (풍덩)

Image Description:
1. A dramatic production photo of WILMA in intense red lighting. A light-skinned woman with long red hair kneels on the floor in a loose black garment. She turns her upper body and face partially to stare at the camera. Her face and the wall behind her are streaked and splattered with red and blue paint.

2. A dimly-lit production photo of Second Class Queer. A bare-chested South Asian man stands in the spotlight. He looks very vulnerable and sad. He wears a colourful checked lungi (a traditional South Asian garment, usually of a cotton cloth wrapped around the lower half of the body).

3. A dimly-lit close up production photo of From the Trembling World. A young East Asian woman looks worriedly at the camera as she rests on her side in a confined space. The scene is lit with a deep blue lighting.