SINGAPORE – 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.

“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.

Geng Rebut Cabinet – meaning “Cabinet seizing gang” – was 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.

Ong, who most recently acted in Alfian’s monologue on censorship, The Death Of Singapore Theatre As Scripted By The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, says: “It’s definitely the most fun rehearsal I’ve been to in a while because the last play I did was very serious.”

She returns to her role as Maisarah Hamdan, a career-driven corporate lawyer specialising in bankruptcy law. Ong is living out her fantasy in this role as she once considered becoming a lawyer in real life, except: “I caught the art bug first before I caught the legal bug”.

The rest of the fictional Workers Action Party (WAP) team are brigadier-general Bukhari Ghazali (Fir Rahman), minister Roslan Jantan (Sani Hussin) and minority candidate Catherine Seah (Serene Chen).

Both Dalifah and Ong say they have studied the tics and body language of politicians – although neither wanted to reveal their real-life inspirations. Ong, additionally, has finally caught up with American legal drama Suits (2011 to 2019) as preparation for her lawyer bits.

Dalifah adds: “I like to people-watch, actually. Whatever character I am doing is inspired by my people-watching.”

Asked how politicians have presented themselves differently since Geng Rebut Cabinet premiered, Ong says: “It is the same, but they’ve also become more savvy in trying to reach out to the public. Politicians are doing more cool stuff like riding a motorbike or doing a silly dance.”

While the first two runs were praised for being funny, Dalifah and Ong – who are in their mid-40s – say that with age comes more depth in their performances. Both hope that audiences do not just walk away laughing, but hear the nuances of each line.

Ong says: “When it’s satire, it’s too easy to play up or ham up the character – which I think you shouldn’t. If it’s a good script, the lines speak for themselves.”

The comedy deals with serious issues such as minority representation and rights – exploring touchy subjects including gerrymandering and exclusions in the military. While Geng Rebut Cabinet’s first two runs played in the wake of the 2015 General Election, this run comes at a time when anticipation for an election, which has to be called by November 2025, is at a high.

Of what she wants audiences to take away from the show about race and power, Dalifah says: “When you have the upper hand, you tend to be ignorant. It’s not that you want to purposely, but maybe because of the system that you have gone through, which has moulded you as such without you realising it.”

Ong adds that the show exposes the ways in which the majority tend to have dominance over others. Acting in the show has forced her to not only confront but also be comfortable with her character:

“When it’s happening outside, I can detach myself. When you’re doing the play, you actually live through the character. You know of it, now you know it.”

Book It/Geng Rebut Cabinet

Where: The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ Wild Rice, Funan, 107 North Bridge Road
When: Sept 5 to 15; Thursdays and Fridays, 8pm; Saturdays, 3 and 8pm; Sept 15, 3pm
Admission: $35 to $65
Info: Go to str.sg/yfnj; in Malay and English with English surtitles