Buttons In The Bread

My knowledge of poker is probably restricted to the basic 5-card game with your full house, straights, flush and maybe the Russian variant of 13 cards…without stakes. But that didn’t matter in the hand we were shown in this latest production by the Pangdemonium Productions team.

When the curtains opened,  I was duly impressed by the wonderful sets. I hadn’t expected it to be so exquisitely crafted with a kitchen that was almost like the real thing, the Italian restaurant (a section), and later in the second act, a total flip change into the basement where the table was set for the game, complete with a revolving centre. A lot of work and resources must have gone into that, and it was enough to get me excited of what’s ahead.

I liked the natural way the dialogue was presented. I enjoyed the restaurant toilet jokes most which felt so logically referenced, yet so funny. And how does someone write something out of a poker game? I believe Patrick Marber had put everything pretty well together in this first play of his. I’ve not watched or read that many of his plays, but I feel he has a knack of exploring relationships between people of varying backgrounds, letting them “collide” and see what would come out of it, like Closer.

The experienced cast (except for Julian Low, who makes his professional theatre debut here) performed well in their element. The accents needed a bit of getting used to though, but it was manageable over time. Personally, I felt Andy Tear was most natural as the goofy Mugsy, who was the butt of most of the jokes especially for his restaurant plan. Even though he was a “mug”, his optimism and self-delusions somehow gets him through life, and in a way endears him to others.

Talking about characters, the five guys couldn’t be more different. Sweeney Ted (reference to Sweeney Todd?) the chef who’s a bad loser. Frankie the gallivanting professional (poker) hopeful. Mugsy. Ash, the visiting brooding (secret) professional poker player. Carl, the debt-ridden prodigal son of Stephen. But they all have something in common; compulsive/impulsive players in one way or another at that, whether they admit it or not. As the game progressed, one by one their “true nature” surfaced and each dropped out of the game in due time (well, mainly when they lost their money).

Ah, then you have Stephen, whom you will realise was the one in full control the entire time. You could say he’s the biggest winner and he could well be the best player among them.
But he does it with a heart, and accordingly deals out aid and advice, keeping the balance between relationships, expectations and stakes. In a way, I guess we learn that winning isn’t all that important. The heart & relationships mean more. And Stephen seems like the best boss one can have. He just lets his staff work overtime to cover their debts (on the other hand, it could be a bondage). Another lesson learnt would be what it means to be family.

Lastly, it’s quite interesting to observe that at the end, no hard feelings remain at the end of the game. Oh yeah, tempers flare, but at the end, it looks like the cycle will continue. So it isn’t really about the game at the end. Maybe that’s how the dynamics of male relationships work, of which I don’t think I can ever fully comprehend.
(I don’t know if I’m guessing all that right and talking sense.)

Overall, I wouldn’t say it was super hilarious for me (maybe because I wasn’t that familiar with certain slangs), but there was definitely room for laughter and insight into human relations and pitfalls.

In poker terms, the ‘dealer’s choice’ is when each player gets to choose their choice of game when it’s their turn to deal. In life, it’s the choices we make that defines us as we deal with it.

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Dealer’s Choice runs till 16 Oct and tickets can be bought at sistic.

Event: “Dealer’s Choice” by Pangdemonium! Productions
Venue: Drama Centre Theatre
Run: 29th Sept – 16th Oct 2011

Pangdemonium’s follow-up to “Closer” staged earlier this year is the poker comedy “Dealer’s Choice”, and although both plays were written by English playwright Patrick Marber, they could hardly be any more different.

“Dealer’s Choice” is a testosterone-filled comedy revolving around six men and their gravitation (I shan’t use the word “love”) towards their weekly game of poker, played in the basement of a small Italian restaurant run by Stephen (Adrian Pang).

Structurally, the play is rather straightforward – the first two acts before intermission centre around the lives of the men and how they are all related to the restaurant.

It establishes their backgrounds, their dreams, their desires and their motivations, with particular respect to the upcoming poker game, which is their weekly ritual.

For instance, we know that Sweeney the cook (played brilliantly by Daniel Jenkins) wants to meet his young daughter Louise the next morning and is reluctant to join in that night’s poker game because he wants to get up early the next day, and also doesn’t want to lose his money.

Frankie the waiter (Keegan Kang), more lovable than boorish, dreams of being a professional poker player in Vegas.

Mugsy (Andy Tear) wants to open a new restaurant in Mile End, and gets ridiculed no end by everyone who hears of his new business plan.

The first two acts do a good job in building up to the eventual poker game climax, which is portrayed in its entirety in the remaining act after the interval.

I never knew how you could write an entire act of around 40 minutes with men just sitting around a table playing poker, but “Dealer’s Choice” pulled it off beautifully.

There are few things in life you could do in a room that could be more tense and potentially dramatic than a game of poker amongst friends with a large pot of money involved, and through the course of the game emotions run unbearably high, tempers are flared and the men go through the whole gamut of emotions.

It is apparent that the cast share an unmistakable sense of chemistry with one another.

I particular enjoyed the performances of Daniel Jenkins and Keegan Kang, although Adrian Pang also did marvellously in his portrayal of a meticulous restaurant owner who does his best to rein in his slight sense of resignation in dealing with his gambling-addicted son Carl.

The play was energetic and entertaining, although one had to get accustomed to the East End references and accents.

The play doesn’t necessarily say a whole lot, but if anything, I guess it explores the hopes, fears and insecurities of men, and also explores the nature and dynamics of male relationships.

I thought the set design by Eucien Chia was exquisite, and it was one of those rare times in a theatre that I instinctively turned to my friend at the start of the show and expressed my sheer delight at seeing the set.

“Dealer’s Choice”, while not particularly brilliant nor provocative, is definitely an entertaining production.

It features great performances, beautiful sets and a sound script.

If you’re looking for a good night out at the theatre, then this is probably your safest bet. (You know that obligatory gambling reference had to be thrown in sooner or later.)

Event: On This Emerald Hill
Venue: Chamber @ The Arts House
Run: 14th Sept – 1st Oct 2011 (selected dates)

You could call this one hugely impressive juggling act.

“On This Emerald Hill” is a monologue that features the wildly talented writer-actor Jonathan Lim attempting to do a number of things all at the same time: a) single-handedly playing at least four characters on stage, and b) merging two landmark Singapore plays into what might be loosely-termed a “sequel”.

Life! reviewer Adeline Chia calls it a “valiant attempt”, and it’s hard to view it any differently.

If we thought Karen Tan’s Herculean effort in Chong Tze Chien’s “To Whom It May Concern” monologue could not possibly have been topped, then I guess we might have been a bit too quick to pass judgement.

It was mesmerising seeing Jonathan Lim portray both Emily Gan and Julian Ngan, engaging in rapid-fire dialogue for extended periods of time, all while managing to skillfully retain the idiosyncrasies of both characters.

The way he slips and slides between characters so quickly and so masterfully, you could have sworn there was more than one human being on stage.

If anything, one should catch this performance simply for the sheer genius of Jonathan Lim’s performance.

That being said, “On This Emerald Hill” is probably more for the theatre aficionados than the average layperson, as it requires a certain familiarity with the Stella Kon play as well as the works of Kuo Pao Kun in order to be fully appreciated.

Those who are familiar with them would feel right at home with the portrayal of the two main characters picking up where they left off, and would also love the many in-joke references to Kuo Pao Kun’s other plays such as “Mama Looking for Her Cat”, “The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree” and “No Parking on Odd Days”.

Perhaps “mashup” might be the best way to term “On This Emerald Hill”, because it essentially borrows heavily from both plays, but more so from the Kuo Pao Kun one.

In terms of themes and ideas, you could probably say that this play doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, apart from highlighting the fact that “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

It didn’t seem to say anything more than what had already been said by its two predecessors.

Adeline Chia says that “the play feels more like a humble homage to two well-loved plays than a creature with its own life”, and I completely agree.

Therefore, I’m not sure if “sequel” is the right term to call it…or if the term “postlude” might perhaps be more appropriate.

Nonetheless, one cannot take away the fact that Jonathan Lim manages to take our breath away with his amazing juggling act, while never once dropping the ball.

…

Remaining show dates are 27th, 29th, 30th Sept, and 1st Oct.

Tickets can be purchased at Bytes.sg (here).

Event: “The Gunpowder Trail” by Teater Ekamatra, as part of Esplanade’s ‘The Studios’ series
Venue: Esplanade Theatre Studio
Run: 8-10 Sep 2011
Playwright/Director: Zizi Azah Bte Abdul Majid
Cast: Oniatta Effendi (Oni) & Natasha Thangamany

I’ve not read the full story of Claire Tham’s short story of which this play was derived from, but only a short excerpt of it on NLB’s NORA website. Armed with this and the synopsis, I was to follow the ‘trail’ to discover what it was really all about.

The Gunpowder Trail is a fast-paced discourse where a daughter (Alia) was left behind by a mother (Lina) who had absconded with $50 million dollars. Alia is thrown into a series of questioning by authorities and also by herself, of her mother’s actions. By fast-paced, I meant the constant switching of scenes, which kept the audience working, to switch and identify the scenes and characters as they appeared. With a cast of two people, five roles were played between the two of them, including two interrogators who try to grill Alia about the whereabouts of her mother, of which she didn’t know and also Peter, Lina’s lover and superior.

Was Lina a bad mother? I would say yes and no. She may look the detached and ambitious mother who displays a hard exterior, but there was still a soft undercurrent that shows in the way she backed out of the abortion and provided for her daughter. She also did not reveal much to Alia about her plans, probably to protect her. Well, the lesser Alia knows, the better, especially under interrogation. But she did let on about putting aside part of the siphoned money for Alia in a secret overseas account, which Alia later realises but doesn’t reveal to officials. Maybe as Oni suggested, Lina was a good mother as she realised that if she stayed any longer, she would screw Alia’s life up eventually. Hence she left the care of her daughter to her parents instead, before they died. Sometimes, loving someone means leaving them.

With the constant switching of roles and scenes, I felt that even though it kept things moving, it could seem a bit jumpy and confusing at times, like little snippets. Good thing I was able to follow nonetheless. I believe the confusion was partly due to the small cast, by which was explained that it would keep the audience focused on the mother and daughter. I guess it can be considered true. Despite the slight confusion, I must still admit it was an interesting approach in running the timeline of events leading up to the flight (gunpowder trail?), and the relationship between mother and daughter.

Oni was excellent as Lina. However, I wasn’t able to differentiate between the 2 interrogators that she was playing as well (which was supposed to be differentiated by one standing and one sitting, and maybe the way they spoke). I saw only one more distinct persona, which was the Malay interrogator. As for Natasha, not too bad a performance for her first foray into professional theatre, although I felt she was slightly stiff in her mannerisms.

Flanked by 2 sides of audience seating, the props were minimal but served their purposes. Interestingly, as explained during the post-show dialogue, a stark contrast was made between Alia’s and Lina’s “corner”. Alia’s corner showed a somewhat permanent set-up of dressing-cum-writing table, while Lina’s was plain empty, to represent her transient nature. I guess the centrepiece, and exceptionally long bench (with many uses) could act as a divider between their two worlds.

I was thinking that if the whole thing can be taken as a recounting by Alia, both in her mind and to the officials, then what transpired would be in the eyes of Alia and the belief in her of her mother. But then she wouldn’t know the details between Peter and Lina. Just a random thought.

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(The Gunpowder Trail marks the end of this season’s ‘The Studios’ series, Closer. The next season will run next year from April to May with the theme Prisms)