Name: New Year, New Scripts
Start: 2026-01-25T13:30:00+08:00
End: 2026-01-25T21:00:00+08:00
Location: The Gallery, Level 5, *SCAPE

A dramatised reading of 3 plays by 3 independent writers - Benedict Lim, Alia Alkaff, and Melizarani T. Selva.
About this Event

About New Year, New Scripts

The inaugural New Year, New Scripts features dramatised readings of three plays by Alia Alkaff, Benedict Lim, and Melizarani T. Selva, three independent playwrights responding to the theme of ‘Softer Systems’.

Over a 4 month journey, these three playwrights would have developed their drafts alongside a roundtable of peers, who will journey together to see their drafts come to life from conception to fruition. The plays will be presented in a dramatised reading on 25 January 2026 to an audience of directors, producers, and friends. Each reading is followed by a roundtable to discuss the work, and explore the further potential for collaboration and development.

The event is supported by The Second Breakfast Company and presented as part of the Comma Creative Arts Festival organised by *SCAPE.

*You are welcome to register for and attend any or all of the readings throughout the day.

Agenda

🕑: 01:30 PM - 03:00 PM
Beans
Host: Benedict Lim

Info: Beans follows Mace and Millhouse, two assistant managers of a military ration bunker after the end of the world. They're stuck in their old office they've been clearing out, and they only have 3 cans of beans left.

🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
vestige
Host: Alia Alkaff

Info: In an underground lab, a scientist mercilessly conducts experiments to achieve uploaded consciousness. Ali Mahmoud and Ali Choo, the isolated test subjects, face these experiments every day and while they have each other, they still long for freedom. When Mimi, a hybrid - a partial upload and artificial intelligence - gains full sentience, this could be their chance for escape. But what does freedom mean to them? And are their memories still intact? vestige explores love, memory and identity and asks: can love stand the test of time and memory?

🕑: 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
Future-proof
Host: Melizarani T. Selva

Info: Trapped behind a malfunctioned digital door lock, a couple find themselves confronting their compatibility results from multiple astrology apps and the incessant noise of futures beyond their control.