This is how the founder of Split Theatre, Darryl Lim, went from rock bottom to helping people tell their most difficult stories through the arts
In 2015, Split Theatre’s artistic director, Darryl Lim, hit his own personal rock bottom. Following a string of failed relationships, Lim was left lonely, miserable and uninspired even as he fought to complete his final year at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where he was doing a double major in English Literature and Theatre Studies.
Not knowing where he was headed, Lim found himself turning down multiple theatre production offers as he started living in increasing solitude. In fact, he was beginning to wonder if theatre, which he had been passionately pursuing since he was in Junior College, was actually his calling after all.
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“I was ready to give up. I didn’t think anything I was working on was good and I was really ready to just stop and do something else,” Lim shared.
It was then that a friend approached him and told him that there was one vacant spot left in the NUS Drama Fest, a festival that celebrates the theatrical works of students.
“He told me that I could literally do anything I wanted and so since I had basically decided that I was no longer good at theatre and that maybe it was not my calling, I decided to do one last show but to make it really chaotic,” Lim said.
Lim’s show at the drama festival ended up being one of the most messy, raw and honest things he’s ever done and also ended up changing his life.
“We were throwing chairs, singing karaoke, using multimedia in the oddest ways. It was really an impulse-based performance where I did whatever I wanted and felt like doing,” Lim continued.
Yet, despite the chaos, he was still approached by multiple people after the show who complimented him.
One stranger in particular told him that there was just something so special about the vulnerability and rawness in his performance and it was this that started to change how he thought about the performing arts.
“It was like a voice had come from all the brokenness and vulnerability and I liked it a lot. I liked embracing the randomness and I loved that I could bring my pain onto a stage and still have it not just make sense but also speak to people,” he said.
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