Buttons In The Bread

(photo credit: Albert Lim KS ©)

Event: “Romeo & Juliet” by W!ld Rice
Venue: Drama Centre Theatre
Run: 12th – 28th Apr 2012

Such Sweet Sorrow

Witnessing a production of “Romeo & Juliet” is not unlike sitting through a rendition of, say, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, or Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

In other words, it’s an epic work, you’ve probably come across it many times, and you probably know many of the segments by heart.

The strength of the material is never in doubt, since it has withstood the test of time despite being thoroughly deconstructed throughout the ages.

Hence, what we’re mainly looking at here is the treatment – What tempo does the conductor take? What colourings does the orchestra give the piece? What are the points of focus?

W!ld Rice’s first in a series of classic play stagings under the banner of “W!ld World Classics” sees Ivan Heng directing his first ever Shakespeare production.

Every start of the year, W!ld Rice intends to bring the world’s most celebrated plays to Singapore audiences, and what better way to start than by choosing the ever-popular “Romeo & Juliet”, quite possibly the greatest love story ever told.

(And also an O-Level literature text, I might add.)

And if the choice of material wasn’t appetising enough, the “who’s who of local theatre” cast list certainly makes it a must-watch – Hansel Tan, Julie Wee, Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin, Lim Yu-Beng, Brendon Fernandez, Gerald Chew, Nora Samosir, Wendy Kweh, Erwin Shah Ismail, Dwayne Tan, etc.

The first thing that strikes you about the production is that there are no sets.

All that presents itself to you is a bare inclined platform on which all “two hours’ traffic” takes place.

(Apart from the bed, of course, which also cleverly doubles up as the balcony as well as the tomb.)

And it is this stripped bare, setless environment which allows us to focus purely on the lines which come forth from the actors’ mouths, which honestly, take a lot of brain power for someone like me to fully comprehend, considering they were written in an archaic language of more than four centuries ago.

Leads Hansel Tan and Julie Wee did marvellously, showcasing a range and depth of emotions which I felt brought full justice to Shakespeare’s glorious tragedy.

The popular choice for outstanding performance would probably go to Neo Swee Lin for playing the Nurse, as she was able to portray her character in a highly-accessible manner, and through her Singlish-accented delivery was able to bring a startling level of relevancy to the lines.

At times you were tempted to think that Shakespeare wrote those lines specifically for Singapore theatre.

Fight choreographer Lim Yu-Beng did a wonderful job with the fight scenes, which seemed all so realistic and gruesome, with fake blood and all.

Special mention should also go to Erwin Shah Ismail and Wendy Kweh for delivering what I felt were superb performances as well.

In the same way we look out for certain well-known segments in our favourite classical pieces, in “Romeo & Juliet” there are generally two scenes which everyone looks out for – the balcony scene and the final crypt scene.

I thought Ivan Heng directed these two particularly salient scenes magnificently, and I found myself being helplessly moved by the enchantment of young love in the balcony scene, and the hopeless tragedy of star-crossed lovers in the final crypt scene.

“Romeo & Juliet” by W!ld Rice is a powerful, moving, and explosive affair (and not just because of the digitally-generated fireworks).

But for all its pizzazz, I personally felt that its biggest triumph was in successfully bringing the story of Romeo and Juliet to life – from on the staid page into an extremely realistic and locally-accessible three-dimensional portrayal.

As Ivan Heng astutely mentions, Shakespeare didn’t write literature, he wrote plays.

And if you’ve never seen a staging of “Romeo & Juliet” before, this would not be at all a bad place to start.

Event: “Freud’s Last Session” by Blank Space Theatre (an Esplanade Presents series : “The Studios”)
Venue: Esplanade Theatre Studio
Run: 11 April  to 15 April 2012
Written by: Mark St. Germain (suggested by “The Question of God” by Dr. Armand M. Nicholl Jr.)
Directed by: Samantha Scott-Blackhall
Cast: Matt Grey (as Sigmund Freud) and Daniel York (as C.S. Lewis)

What happens when two intellectually sound men in the form of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis meet and converse? One an atheist, and the other, an atheist turned Christian? What you get is a witty debate as the two men expound on the age old argument on the existence of God as each tries to convince each other on their point of view, which is the premise of this play.

The arguments (i.e. the script) were presented very logically, with a touch of subtlety, not excluding some witty humour when each got the upper hand at times and the contradictions they find themselves caught in. Contradictions of habits. I liked the script. Smart. I liked the way it was peppered with facts and quotes from each writer’s books. And it was brought forth very nicely by the actors, and Matt did a good job with the accent. They had done some research on the books written by Freud and Lewis and that makes it all the more convincing.

Then you have the sets, which was meant to be a re-creation of Freud’s study. The detail and effort, down to the lighting from day to night were great. The whole setup felt a little surreal, like one was peering into the two men’s mind, yet there was that constant humming at the background with the signs of the impending war, and the occasional radio broadcast, which as Matt (or was it Daniel?) said was like a conduit to the outside world.

But as expected, it was a “safe” ending, where the debate could go on and on. It was pretty abrupt though with Lewis leaving like that, like it was unfinished. Ah, but the ending ‘joke’ about the pastor and the insurance agent. Taking it many ways, who had convinced who, or not? If you have faith and believe in the existence of God, you would believe you are fully insured. If not, then…

I’ve been meaning to read Freud’s work for some time, and also C.S. Lewis’ non-Narnian writings. I guess now I’m reminded and motivated once more to do so. I still don’t get the train joke though.

Event: “godeatgod” by The Necessary Stage (as part of the NUS Arts Festival 2012)
Venue: UCC Theatre
Run: 24th – 25th Mar 2012

Mysterious Ways

Context is a funny thing.

The extensive exhibition at the foyer of the UCC made very sure you did not escape the fact that The Necessary Stage – one of Singapore’s most well-known and respected theatre companies – is currently celebrating its 25th year of existence.

The company has certainly come a long way thanks to the leadership of stalwarts Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma, and it is with this context in mind that one enters the UCC Theatre to witness “godeatgod”.

“godeatgod” was written as a response to the devastating events of 9/11 (context again), and when you take into account the fact that it is TNS doing a play as a response to 9/11…well, there’s no reason whatsoever to dismiss the play.

Or is there?

For a play that bills itself as “a response to 9/11”, it seemed “godeatgod” did not dwell very much on 9/11 per se, although it did attempt to explore the universal theme of suffering and why God allows suffering in the world to happen.

I understand that deliberate attempts were made to assemble a multi-national cast, and this made it so much more resonant when an actor from India ruminates on the Mumbai attacks in ’08, or when an actor from Indonesia recalls the tsunami that hit his homeland in ’04, or when an actor from China laments the current state of Chinese society in light of the Yue Yue incident.

I liked the starting sequence, which tried to mimic an intro to a television show, very much.

Regardless of its relevance, I thought it was beautifully done.

There was also the other storyline of a wife grieving over the slow and inevitable death of her husband, though I found it hard to reconcile this particular storyline to the larger context of the play.

Truth be told, this was as much of the play as I could grasp.

Apart from the opening segment which resembled casual banter between actors and audience, and the segment somewhere at the two-third mark where the actors attempted to conduct an off-the-cuff dialogue session amongst themselves covering pertinent social and religious topics, I found it difficult to make sense of much of the play.

The scenes were largely surreal and disconnected, with heavy use of what I assume must have been metaphors, and dialogue which took quite a bit of effort to wrap one’s head around.

At times it almost seemed self-indulgent.

At the midway point in the play I instinctively turned to my sides and flashed that “Am I the only person here who’s not getting any of this?” look on my face.

Or was this the whole point of it all – to parallel this seeming absurdity with the fact that it is just as difficult for one to make sense of the suffering that happens all around us in the world today?

Personally, I thought the segments which impacted me most deeply were when they flashed the horrendous video clip of Yue Yue being run over, and when the actors all came out to conduct their informal dialogue session.

Those were the moments that connected with me most.

Apart from that, “godeatgod” certainly made for extremely uneasy viewing, especially when it decided to continue further with the surrealism after the informal dialogue session had ended.

It was the great Bob Dylan who cautioned us not to criticise what we can’t understand, and while on its 25th anniversary TNS presents a play which seems to throw up a plethora of difficult questions, it just might have left all the answers blowing in the wind.

Event: “Krishnan’s Dairy” co-presented by Indian Ink Theatre Company and the SRT
Venue: DBS Arts Centre
Run: 21st – 31st Mar 2012

Brimful Of Jacob Rajan

“Krishnan’s Dairy” (not “diary”) was the first play staged by New Zealand theatre company Indian Ink Theatre Company, and premiered in 1997.

Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune of catching two of their other productions at the SRT, namely “The Pickle King” in 2007 and “The Guru of Chai” in 2011, and I’ve found their shows to be of excellent quality, thanks in no small part to the immense talent of one man – Jacob Rajan.

“Krishnan’s Dairy” was no different.

The term “dairy” here refers to what we’d probably call a convenience store or a corner shop.

The play centres around Gobi and Zina Krishnan, an immigrant couple from India, and how they attempt to courageously adapt to life in New Zealand while running a humble dairy.

In the course of the play we witness the many challenges a dairy owner would typically face – some more life-threatening than others – and we see how Gobi’s wife Zina struggles with her predicament of having to raise a newborn in a foreign land in which she is not completely comfortable with, and constantly makes known to Gobi her yearning to be back in India.

Gobi, on the other hand, is the more optimistic and adaptable one, and puts on a brave front as he tries to make the best of his new start here in New Zealand.

As the story unfolds, we learn more about this quirky but charming relationship between husband and wife, and this is paralleled with the epic story of Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal.

Through the use of masks, Jacob Rajan deftly switches between roles with consummate ease.

You could have sworn there were actually two actors on stage playing Gobi and Zina.

The beauty of Rajan’s works lies in its delicate simplicity.

He wrings out pure magic from the simplest of props and barest of sets.

As with “The Guru of Chai”, it is amazing how he is able to create so much from so little.

It is this economy with props which makes his work so charming.

Plus the fact that he always incorporates so many clever little ideas in his plays, such as the authentic sound effects of the till and the sound of loose change being transferred from one person’s hand to another, and the way a mask placed at the back of his head represents another person.

I love how Jacob Rajan shows you what beautiful effects can be achieved on a small stage with great acting, nifty ideas, and a little bit of imagination on the part of the audience.

In many ways, he brings you back to the essence of theatre.