Buttons In The Bread

Event: Tell Me When To Laugh and When To Cry 教我哭教我笑
(part of Esplanade’s The Studios series : Exchanges)
Venue: Esplanade Theatre Studio
Run: 8, 10 & 11 August 2012
Playwright/Director/Actor: Peter Sau 苏佳亮

Self. Yes, self. ‘Self’ was the main theme that was played throughout the performance, not as an indulgence, but as an introspective exploration of personalities, in five very different personas, all played by Peter Sau. This production was also a tribute to Kuo Pao Kun, this year being the 10th anniversary of his passing on. Peter Sau was a student of Kuo Pao Kun, and this ‘self’ theme was one that he taught his students, of going deep into your own self, theatre stripped bare.

Performed in both English and Mandarin, the production was based on an interesting concept of casting directors instead of actors (I suppose that’s how the title came about?). The play purports to give an afterlife to characters once introduced in other plays directed by the likes of Ivan Heng, Casey Lim, Natalie Hennedige and Li Xie. In this second act, the characters are put together in lives connected, like the love affair between Mosquito Man and Mother, and the encounter between Branson and Daniel.

The two-act production was a conversation with/by many selves, the first half being an introduction to the personas’ background and their perspectives, and the second half, the possible “afterlife” that they might have, i.e. how their stories might have continued. This brings me to think about how some of us might actually wonder about something similar, or as audience, might have wished that things would have turn out another way or directed in another way.

Anyway, a quick run-down of the characters:
1) Branson Sau (苏不起) – taxi driver character inspired by ‘Branson’ from Cooling Off Day (2011), as well as The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole and Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral written by Kuo Pao Kun
2) Daniel Sau (苏丹尼尔) – inspired by ‘Daniel’ from A Language of Their Own (2006)
3) Gaga Peterina (卡卡彼得丽娜) – a new persona created by Peter Sau and Gani Karim
4) Mosquito Man (苏蚊人) – inspired by ‘Mosquito Man’ from Nothing (2007)
5) Mother (母亲‘闷骚’) inspired by ‘Mother’ from House of Sins (2008)

I had unfortunately not had a chance to watch all the plays the characters were derived from, but I felt Peter Sau made a rather good effort in playing the 5 characters, trying to portray each character as uniquely as they would be. Probably the most distinct character was Mosquito Man with his mosquito voice and innocent and hopeful character, a contrast from the rest. Although I felt that maybe not all the personas were fully developed, it’s not easy having to transit between the characters and it was a challenge Peter posed to himself. For him, the newly created Gaga was closest to his heart where he goes deeper into his own self and addresses an artiste’s conflicts and struggles, the reasons of why he’s doing what he’s doing.

In most of the scenes, they start out on a little lighter note, but ends off on a heavier note. What I thought was good abut this production was how it addresses some of the social stigmas and issues in the midst of humor. We had the ‘cursory’ political references though addressed in a reversed psychology way, the case about censorship (which I felt was the funniest scene in the show), and the persecution faced by AIDS patients. There is a message, or many, to be told. And the touch of the brief car accident encounter between Branson and Daniel (who has AIDS) could spin off another track of pushing the audience to think about the social response in such a situation, as what Peter mentioned in the post-show dialogue. Subtly, we are introduced also to the legwork an artiste has to do for his craft, whether through interviews, observations or even obstacles faced.

The ending scenes where Petar Sau contemplates the few possible endings to the stories brings us back to art of theatre and aptly, the production closes with a stripped down mannequin as the centerpiece, representing the bare-naked true self, exposed and discovered.

Event: “Living Rooms” presented by Take Off Productions
Venue: Play Den @ The Arts House
Run: 4th – 5th Aug 2012

A Room With A View

It’s heartening to hear of such sprightly activity going on these days, especially amongst the younger generation of theatre enthusiasts.

Budding playwright-director Christopher Fok, who had recently directed “Paper Men” at Teater Artistik, and who was also acting in “Living Rooms”, alerted me to this production and asked me to come watch.

“Living Rooms” is an evening of three plays by three talented young playwrights – “Inheritance” by Lee Jing Yan, “The Untitled Funeral Play” by Luke Vijay Somasundram (who incidentally was the playwright for “Paper Men”), and “Postgrads” by Joel Tan.

It is presented by Take Off Productions, which is a non-profit informal drama group of Singapore theatre enthusiasts in their 20’s.

Many of the cast and crew in “Living Rooms” are NUS students, and the raw sense of eagerness and enthusiasm in these young performers (think “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “City Night Songs”) is something that never ceases to enthrall me.

It must be said also that many in attendance on Sunday evening were probably school friends of the cast and crew, which resulted in fantastic audience rapport the entire evening as well.

“Inheritance”, the shortest play of the lot at less than half an hour, portrays a meeting between siblings Eliza and Ben after years of separation.

The viewer is given the task of piecing the backstory together as the playwright drops subtle clues along the way through the siblings’ interactions.

Towards the end of the play, the playwright hints at a possibility of a sexual relationship between the older sister and the younger brother in their youth (unbeknownst to Ben), but this strain is never fully developed and the play ends shortly after.

“Inheritance” felt to me like an etude-tableaux (to borrow a term from classical music) in the way it resembled more of a “mood piece”, whereby there didn’t seem to be any real dramatic arc, but rather, the entire piece sought to capture a particular sentiment or paint a particular picture.

“The Untitled Funeral Play” was the only comedy of the night, and represented a drastic shift in mood and dynamics from the first play.

I liked the paciness of the script, and Luke Vijay Somasundram displays a good understanding of the farce genre in the way he places his lovable caricatures in such remarkably awkward situations, in a manner that was entertaining but yet not too unbelievable.

The play was definitely funny, but in the midst of the hilarity Luke’s wit shines through in how he manages to also slip in a sly dig or two at bureaucracy, as well as his commentary on whether funerals are ultimately for the dead or for the living.

The final play of the evening was “Postgrads”, written and directed by Joel Tan, who was also the playwright for W!ld Rice’s “Family Outing” last year.

“Postgrads” is an intense play surrounding the lives of four PhD student roommates and how they come to terms with the impending departure of one of them, Hui, who has suddenly decided to throw in the towel and call it quits on his post-graduate pursuits.

It starts off with Hui slowly and meticulously packing his books into cartons, and what follows is a series of difficult, heart-to-heart interrogative conversations between the other three roommates and Hui.

Joel balances the character mix in his play well with the use of the painfully pragmatic Sarah, the idealistic Ming and the sulking, pessimistic Kevin.

In the end, Hui takes his leave, leaving the three of them standing there watching as the door closes behind him, and you could just feel the sudden vast vacuum enter their lives at that point.

The only issue I had was that the play seemed to always be in danger of meandering, and once again, as with “Family Outing”, Joel seems to have had written in one scene too many at the end, because many of us in the audience had thought the play had genuinely ended a few scenes before the end.

Credit to Take Off Productions and what they’re doing with productions such as “Living Rooms”, and I only wish they’d consider doing these more frequently than once every two years!

It’s so encouraging to see so much young talent in local theatre, and it only augurs well for the future of our theatre scene if more of such young talents are given the opportunity and avenue to do what they love best.

These plays may not be the most polished of theatre works, both in terms of the source material and the way they’re directed and performed, but therein lies the whole point – to nurture, cultivate and hone young talent in enabling them to blossom into competent professionals in due time.

Event: William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ by SRT’s The Young Co.
Venue: DBS Arts Centre
Run: 25-28 Jul 2012
Adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams
Directed by Daniel Jenkins
Cast: Ethan Chia (Ralph), Andrew Marko (Piggy), Bright Ong (Jack), Bjorn Lee Varella (Simon), Leroy Yap (Sam), Gavin Low (Eric), Sean Lai (Maurice), Gurmit Singh (Bill), Rick Chan (Roger), Soh Wee Pin (Perceval)

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I have never gotten down to reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but I have no doubt that it is a text that provides the perfect base for examining the human condition.

What first greeted us was the smell of what I believe were manila rope hanging on stage (and was it kerosene?) and the set of what looked like the wreckage of a plane, which was eventually used as the shelter and hill top in the play. Didn’t quite enjoy the smell which was quite overpowering, but I guess it helped in giving the sense that we were somehow in the wilderness together with the boys and a reminder of the plane crash. I thought the sets were given much thought and effort and served the show well. What I felt was rather good were parts of the sound design like the intro, where a plane crash was simulated. The theatre literally shook with the vibrations of the crash sound sequence. The surround effects were great. The thunders were also pretty convincing.  These thanks to Jeffrey Yue.

And so, we go into the production proper. Set originally during the Second World War in the novel in light of the atomic bomb, I didn’t realise that this production wasn’t so, until I read the director’s note after the show. Here, it was meant to be set in a contemporary context as the War of Terror, where young people today wonder if there’ll be a world for them to grow up into. In any case, that sense of uncertainty and fear of the future wasn’t that much explored and was probably not the focus of play, which was more of surviving the now. And indeed, who would survive, and in the face of seclusion and dire state, would the boys turn savage? Well, a few of them did, while the rest tried to keep to their civilised roots, but were in the end hunted down, till help finally came.

The initial progress of the play was ok, with the introduction of the characters and their personalities. You had the irritating smart aleck in Piggy who just goes on and on that he’s right; the diplomatic Ralph who was a natural leader, though wavers under peer pressure; the domineering yet insecure Jack, who always wants to be in control but is threatened by Ralph’s presence; the sadistic Roger who instigates and loves blood spilling; the innocent and sensitive Simon, and others. However, the show somehow began to feel a little draggy as it progressed, and being at what was eventually a 90-minute show, it wasn’t a good sign. I think one main reason was the pace of development of the story and characters.

I believe the characters were meant to represent different natures or ideals of the human race, but I felt it was not pursued by each actor deep enough.  There were moments when I could hardly make out what Simon was saying. I wouldn’t say it was easy given the short time for character development within the show and the relatively young cast but it would have been more engaging if we could see that brought out, especially for the main characters, so that there would be a clearer distinction between their natures and their character development in the face of being stranded and pitched against each other for survival. The turning point of the show would be when Simon was murdered, and that would have been a good point to pick up the pace to reveal the boys’ true nature. However, things became blurred and messy and more rant-like, and at some point, felt like it was going round in circles at some point.
Although it finally reached the climax at the end when Ralph was almost killed, the repetitive “it’s a game right” ending lines might have been done too many times and I felt it could have been more impactful with a stronger tone and more distinct reaction from the characters, with a definitive stop. Wasn’t it supposed to be disappointment and “shock” on the part of the rescuer, that the boys had degenerated into such an uncivilised state?

Well, I believe that with some tweaks, the production would take greater heights and that a couple of the actors displayed latent potential to go farther in their acting career.