Your first crush. The one who never texted back. The one who got away. Whether we lived it ourselves or watched it unfold in a Tamil film, most of us have a failed romance to our name.
That shared experience is the starting point for காதல் தோல்விகள் (The Failed Romances), a coming-of-age cabaret about love, romance and heartbreak, told through the lens of Tamil cinema. Created by TerryandTheCuz and Adriano Cortese, the Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre (JCPAC) will present it from 12 to 15 November 2026.
Many of us grew up on Tamil films, with their undeniable dramatic confessions, heartbreak ballads and ideas of what a “hero” and “heroine” should be. The production blends theatre, live music, movement and design to ask what those stories taught us about love, and what happens when real life doesn’t follow the script. The piece intends to turn deeply personal stories into a shared cultural experience, full of humour, memory and spectacle.
A live six-piece band performs iconic and reimagined Tamil songs throughout, while performers Govin Ruben and Udaya Soundari navigate the messy, often contradictory terrain of the heart. Udaya is a Singaporean Indian television actress and presenter, and the first person in Singapore to win three awards in a single year at the Pradhana Vizha awards. The show also looks at the myths of masculinity, femininity, attraction and belonging shaped by decades of cinema and colonial legacy.
The work was developed over several years with collaborators across Malaysia and Australia, with Ashwin Gobinath as music director, Sharmilla Ganesan as dramaturg and Harshini Sukumaran as choreographer.
After its Malaysian season, the production travels to Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore (21–22 November 2026) and then to Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, New York (13 January 2027), where it will become the first Malaysian work to be presented at Lincoln Centre. This marks a significant milestone for Malaysian contemporary performance and provides an important international platform for a work rooted in Tamil cinema, Malaysian culture and the lived experiences of the South Asian diaspora.
Event details
- Venue: Experimental Theatre (Black Box), JCPAC, 5th Floor, Sunway Square Mall, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
- Dates and times:
- Thu, 12 Nov: Preview, 9pm
- Fri, 13 Nov: Opening, 9pm
- Sat, 14 Nov: 3pm and 9pm
- Sun, 15 Nov: 3pm and 9pm
- Tickets: Preview: RM75 (Seating Bank), RM125 (Tables). Opening and subsequent shows: RM95 (Seating Bank), RM145 (Tables). Click HERE to purchase tickets.
- Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission. Doors open 15 minutes before each show.
- Languages: English, Tamil and Malay, with English subtitles
- Age guidance: 16+. Contains haze/smoke, strobe lighting, mature themes and strong language.
- Note: No photography or videography is permitted during the performance.
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