Election satire Geng Rebut Cabinet seeks a third term with audiences

Reprising their roles for the third time as electoral candidates in the political play Geng Rebut Cabinet, actors Farah Ong and Dalifah Shahril feel like politicians on the ground canvassing votes and support from their constituency the audience.

- Shawn Hoo

"I understand how the Members of Parliament (MPs) feel now every five years you have to meet the residents," Dalifah jokes.

She returns to her role as the earnest general practitioner Zainab Halim, a two-term MP in the fictional Chai Chee-Commonwealth GRC.

Playwright Alfian Sa'at's script previously staged in 2015 and 2016 inverts the logic of the Singaporean electoral innovation that is the group representation constituency, introduced in 1988 to ensure minority representation in Parliament. In the play's topsy-turvy world, Malays are the ethnic majority and each GRC team must field a minority Chinese candidate to qualify meaning was Geng Rebut Cabinet "Cabinet seizing gang" nominated for best script at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2016. Teater Ekamatra's new version of the show, directed by its former artistic director Mohd Fared Jainal, plays at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ Wild Rice, Funan from Sept 5 to 15.