Produced by Toy Factory, Quest: The White Hare is a modernisation of an old Hokkien opera, The White Hare, for a contemporary audience. The classic tale is about a mysterious white hare who reunites a mother and son after 16 years of separation. To update it, writer and director Goh Boon Teck adds an outer layer where a group of amateur actors are rehearsing the production of this Chinese opera in order to raise money to pay for the company’s debts. The contemporary actors speak in Mandarin, Hokkien, and a smattering of Singlish. They are quite humorous and crack jokes alluding to modern-day issues in Singapore contrasting with traditional ideologies. However, the opera director is extremely dictatorial, harshly admonishing everyone telling them that they are not up to standard. On the opening night, Madame Gwee, the elderly famous star performer inexplicably fails to show up, and at the last moment a young supporting cast member has to quickly stand in for this principal role. A White Hare, played by 7-year-old Asher Kang, appears and unites the mother, Madame Gwee, to her long lost son Ni Shan. There is a twist at the end when it turns out that the Madame Gwee of the show is an imposter, and the real Madame Gwee shows up at the curtain call to apologise for not being able to perform in the opera. The show is well directed by Goh Boon Teck and the tuneful music composed by August Lum reflects the Chinese opera idiom and at the same time appeals to contemporary musical theatre audiences. The producer is Justin Wong, the Chinese opera costumes beautifully designed by Max Tan, and the sound engineered by Sandra Tay. All the actors can be congratulated for their outstanding performances. The importance of this original creation is that it brings Chinese opera to a modern audience, and this experimentation with the fusion of Chinese opera with Western musical theatre helps in the evolution of an ancient art form into the 21st century.