A city is and is not its buildings. It is and is not the memory of a street corner, of people passing through. It is and is not the hum of lives that covers the walls, like concrete or dirt, layering one atop the other until they become indistinguishable over time.

The stage is a space of possibility and the performers are its architects. Twelve lives converge to build a fleeting city that exists only when seen. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s masterwork Invisible Cities, Singaporean theatremaker Tan Shou Chen presents his latest creation, Pulau Rindu, collaboratively devised by twelve young theatre performers.

“What makes a city? The buildings we see—or the memories and visions we embody? Who are the ones building our city?”

Emergency Stairs invites the audience into a profound meditation on memory and loss, constructing impossible cities within the theatre.