Rub My Antenna

Event: “Rub My Antenna” by Complete Communicators
Venue: Play Den @ The Arts House
Run: 12th Jan – 15th Jan 2012

“Rub My Antenna” is a collection of around seven comedy sketches by renown playwrights Christopher Durang (Tony Award Nominee and Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama) and David Ives (Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award).

And in case you were wondering, the name “Rub My Antenna” is a line taken from the hilarious “mayfly” sketch in the second act.

The production is directed by Engie Ho, and stars Sharul Channa, Rishi Budhrani, Faizal Abdullah, Deborah Emmanuel, Pavan J Singh and Cassandra Spykerman.

The sketches were largely very entertaining (although some being rather American in reference), often about neurotic characters being placed in all sorts of weird situations, such as two dating mayflys eventually finding out from TV that they only have a few more hours to live, or a couple having to host the husband’s psychotic ex-girlfriend for a night, or three monkeys sitting by typewriters trying to type Shakespeare (an obvious play on the “Infinite Monkey Theorem”).

At times, it almost felt as if one was watching the 10-minute playwriting festival Short+Sweet, what with the short and comedic nature of each of the skits.

I personally felt that the material in the second act was much stronger than in the first act.

I liked the energy of the cast, and I thought their enthusiasm was infectious, to say the least.

I thought they made good use of the limited space presented to them in the Play Den, and kudos to lighting designer Kimbery Kwa for some nifty lighting work as well.

The final skit, about the actor who is thrust on stage without knowing his lines, was one of the best of the lot, and I thought the way they ended the entire evening’s show, i.e. with the actor being erroneously executed on stage and the rest of the cast having to clear the audience (i.e. us) out of the theatre due to the “unexpected” turn of events, was highly refreshing.

“Rub My Antenna” was an enjoyable evening of theatre, and although some of the plays might have been a bit too American in their references, I thought that overall it provided good laughs, and it also showcased some really good writing coupled with competent stage execution.