Cover Darryl Lim

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.

Tatler Asia
Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

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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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

It was from there that Lim decided that he wanted to fill a void in the theatre scene. He wanted to have a place where people could come and be vulnerable and to be able to tell their stories safely. 

This was when Split Theatre was born. 

At first, Split Theatre was a small group of passionate individuals who would volunteer their time to act.

At that point, Darryl was also teaching literature in a secondary school and would use his connections to help broaden his student’s knowledge. He was also using the full-time salary he was earning to fund the theatre which was slowly trying to find its own voice. 

“A lot of my early work was very self-indulgent and very focused on myself and my personal struggles. It was around 2019 when I decided that I wanted to hear the stories of the other actors that I worked with and that’s how Colours came about,” Lim said. 

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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

Colours was a play that took place in May 2019. The six cast members created a metaphorical aeroplane with their space and had guests come in as travellers on this imaginary flight.

It was an interactive and physical play that involved the actors talking to audience members, singing familiar songs and telling personal stories when the metaphorical plane crashes. 

“Each actor had a sense of ownership and the whole play was just so daring and filled with heart and soul. We knew we had to continue doing things like this.” Lim said. Of course, shortly after that, Covid-19 hit. 

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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

“Covid-19 was actually a period where we focused heavily on rebranding. We solidified our mission statement which read, ’you matter’, we came up with a logo and we did our best to be creative with what we had,” shared Lim.

It was through the restrictions, lockdowns and more that Resistance was born. Resistance was an online project that allowed actors to completely express themselves and their stories through a webpage. 

“Everyone was so creative. We had actors expressing themselves by creating playlists of songs, by putting up poems, by filming things. It was a way for us to explore how to talk about the hardest parts of our life in a creative way,” shared Damien Ng, a freelance actor with the theatre. 

He continued by saying that it was a lot like people watching for the audience who would get to learn about the actors and their stories as they watched these compilations. 

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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

Unfortunately, things quickly changed at the beginning of 2021 when Lim was unexpectedly diagnosed with Lymphoma. 

“It was so sudden and I suppose I was just unwilling to admit that I had this disease and so I just went on as per normal. I went for all my treatments but I was not admitting it to myself. It took multiple random cab drivers to get me to talk about it actually,” Lim said, visibly affected.

“Many times I would get a cab to the cancer centre and I would have a cab driver asking me why I was heading there especially because I looked too young. It was through telling these strangers about my diagnosis that I began to slowly accept that cancer was now part of my story and that was when I began to own it,” Lim continued. 

Of course, even cancer couldn’t stop the passionate director and throughout his treatments, one word kept playing in his head over and over: growth. 

He considered how growth could be good and bad, how a tumour grows but people also grow emotionally and physically. He also considered how everyone has things that we hate about ourselves and genuinely asked himself how could learn and help people to teach them how to accept themselves for who they are. 

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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

This was when Work on The Self was conceptualised. Work on The Self is a ten week-long programme that allows people to use physical theatre, such as through movement, speech or song, to work on their selves and to care for and be present with others and themselves. The programme aims to empower individuals to accept who they are and who they can be while remaining compassionate. 

“For example, we had a participant who runs regularly and who said whenever he runs past a bicycle, he will move faster because he feels that the person is motivating him. He took this story and used it on the stage during our programme,” said Joash Zheng, another freelance actor at the theatre. 

“The programme is basically a place to seek asylum from the weekly stresses and conflicts of daily life. I personally saw myself as a refugee from my past, willing to walk, talk, and think differently, in order to escape all the shame and guilt of the choices I have made to survive,” Zheng continued. They added that by the end of the 10 weeks, they saw so much value in all the parts of themself that they tried to hide.

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Photo: Split Theatre
Above Photo: Split Theatre

Currently, Split Theatre has been testing their programme with their seven ensemble actors and they have been working towards a final showcase entitled, Don’t Cancer Me Can which will run from December 18 to December 21.

The show sees the main character searching for truth throughout the performance. However, when he finds it, it becomes almost cancerous to him.

It emphasises that everyone has ugly parts within themselves but that through acceptance, we can begin to heal and grow.

The actors in this show will then become facilitators to the incoming public batch of students when the programme runs again next year from January 22 to March 26 and then again from April 16 to June 18.

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Today, Lim has finally finished his cancer treatment and his tumour has shrunk. He is now working on Work on The Self with even more gusto while also preparing his team for ways in which the theatre can continue to be a space that tells vulnerable stories in order to promote healing. 

“It all started from those failed relationships and me hitting rock bottom. I would never have discovered the ways in which theatre can be healing if I hadn’t first wanted to give it all up,” Lim said with a smile.

Joash Zheng goes by they/them pronouns.

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