Buttons In The Bread

(Photo courtesy of Hatch Theatrics)

Event: “Hawa” by Hatch Theatrics
Venue: The Substation Theatre
Run: 24th & 25th Apr 2015

Beneath the Veil

This is Hatch’s first production of 2015, after the psycho-thriller play called “Lockdown” last December at the same venue.

And while the last play depicted an exhilarating lockdown scenario between a teacher and three students in a secondary school counselling room, “Hawa” takes on a slower, heavier and much more sombre tone, touching on the subject of religion and death.

Siti (played by Isabella Chiam) is a recent Muslim convert, and attempts to hold a lone funeral service for her close female friend Sarah.

Not much is known about this “close friend” of hers, and an Ahmad (played by Saiful Amri) who runs a funeral service called Zoom Zoom Funeral Services promptly arrives on the scene to offer his services.

It is apparent that Siti is still largely unfamiliar with the procedures of a proper Muslim funeral, and Ahmad spends considerable time and effort trying to teach Siti the proper rites to perform.

What makes things even more difficult to manage is the fact that there seems to be only Siti present at the funeral, and none of the deceased’s family members are around to assist in the proceedings.

Soon, a young religious man named Zaki (played by Al-Matin Yatim) arrives on the scene on the pretext of offering prayers to the deceased, but we quickly learn that he has an interest in getting to know Siti better.

The main crux of the play soon emerges, and that is the fact that neither Ahmad nor Zaki, being males, is able to bathe Sarah’s body, and the task is placed squarely on the shoulders of Siti, being the only female present at the funeral.

What makes things worse is that Siti refuses to perform the rite despite the short time frame she has to work with, and we later learn that Siti was once in a forbidden relationship with Sarah, who was a Muslim girl, and the relationship resulted in Sarah being estranged with her family, who cut her off on religious and moral grounds.

Eventually, after much persuasion and soul searching, Siti agrees to learn the bathing procedure by watching Ahmad demonstrate the entire rite using Zaki as a dummy.

Where “Hawa” shines is in the performances of the actors, and Al-Matin Yatim in particular exudes a certain charisma and stage presence which makes his character both very believable and enjoyable to watch.

Saiful Amri too plays the role of the business-minded funeral director very well, being extremely pragmatic but yet possessing a sense of humanity about him in wanting to ensure the entire funeral is carried out in a manner which is honourable to the deceased.

Isabella Chiam is believable as the recently-converted and attractive-looking Siti, although perhaps lacking somewhat in range as compared to her counterparts, and one would have preferred if she could slow down her speaking every now and then, and vary the pace a little bit.

Playwright Johnny Jon Jon attempts to ask many difficult questions about religion and sexuality in this play, although it felt to me like the play tried to cover too much ground at one go, and stretched on for much longer than I would have liked.

For example, the scene depicting the backstory of Zaki, while insightful, felt superfluous as it didn’t exactly contribute to the main thrust of the play, which was the exploration of Siti’s journey into Islam and her past relationship with Sarah.

Also, the scene where Ahmad demonstrated the full bathing rite for the dead body felt too lengthy, and one wonders if it was really necessary to enact the entire procedure from start to finish and if it could have been condensed slightly.

However, Johnny Jon Jon demonstrates sharp wit in his dialogue, which is often crisp and filled with a keen sense of humour, and manages to make the audience laugh out loud on numerous occasions, even in a play as intense as this.

“Hawa” is a deep and sombre journey into the issue of faith and how it relates to, or in this case reconciles with, both the idea of sexual relationships as well as family relationships.

Though lengthy, it poses many very tough questions which are seldom discussed nor portrayed on stage, and one walks away from it with a deeper sense of perspective on religion, on love and on life in general.

(Photo courtesy of Checkpoint Theatre. Photo credit: Crispian Chan)

Event: “Normal” by Checkpoint Theatre
Venue: Drama Centre Black Box
Run: 9th – 19th Apr 2015

Teach Them Well And Let Them Lead The Way

You’ve got to give it to Checkpoint Theatre.

I can’t think of too many other theatre companies that so earnestly and meticulously nuture promising young playwrights by guiding them from the conception of their plays to organising proper dramatised readings to faithfully bringing the scripts all the way to fruition by giving them a full staging at the end of it all.

I recall attending Checkpoint’s “Associate Artist Play Readings” over two separate evenings in December 2013, where two of the readings were of one called “Our Lady of Lourdes” by Joel Tan and another called “Normal” by Faith Ng.

And true to their word, Checkpoint had continued to develop the work-in-progress scripts with the playwrights, till we finally saw both of them being given their full staging recently.

“Our Lady of Lourdes” eventually became “They Way We Go”, which was staged last November at the SOTA Theatre Studio, while “Normal” retains its title and currently runs at the Drama Centre Black Box.

It is easy to confuse bits of the two plays together, as both prominently feature a pair of schoolgirl friends in uniform (at least one of whom has issues with authority) and their misadventures in a mission school, and not to mention the presence of a motherly teacher who wants the best for the girls.

But while “The Way We Go” was more of a meditation on life and love, “Normal” places the spotlight firmly on Singapore’s education system and its fixation with the concept of streaming.

It chronicles the schooling lives of a pair of best friends Daphne (played by Audrey Teong) and Ashley (played by Claire Chung), who happen to be Secondary 5 students in their school’s Normal stream.

Ashley is clearly the more rebellious one, while industrious Daphne just can’t seem to catch a break and deliver the results when it matters most.

In comes the wide-eyed Miss Sarah Hew (played by Oon Shu An), a new Literature teacher who hopes to inspire the class to greater heights, but little does she realise the enormity of the task at hand.

Through the course of the play, we witness the insecurities and stigma the Normal students are put through on a daily basis, often masked by a brash and seemingly indifferent exterior as in Ashley’s case.

For instance, Ashley continually “forgets” to wear her nametag to school and is often reprimanded for it, and it is only later that we find out that it is actually because she is embarrassed to be identified as a Secondary 5 student by the colour-coded nametag she is forced to wear.

At times the students feel like they are being made to suffer the ignominy of being labelled “Normal” and wasting one extra year in secondary school all because they did not perform well in that one exam in Primary Six.

The set design by Eucien Chia is a particularly inspired one, with three long horizontal black mesh screens with rectangular wooden frames resembling three separate blackboards, which are at the same time see-through, allowing us to see both teachers and students pacing behind the mesh screens in a way which resembles the busy corridors of a typical school.

Director Claire Wong cleverly and effectively utilises a chorus in the form of an ensemble of students often performing a variety of effects such as the ticking of a clock and the background chatter of students in the classroom, in a way which beautifully enhances the proceedings.

In fact, the creative use of the chorus was one of the highlights of watching the production.

In terms of performances, for me it was Audrey Teong who stole the show in bringing out the full essence of the talented but often insecure Daphne, and it was a joy watching her flesh out the character to its fullest.

Zee Wong, who plays Sarah Hew’s colleague Lynette, was quite a revelation too, and felt like a breath of fresh air every time she came on, although one would have perhaps preferred her rendition to carry more cynicism as is befitting a jaded teacher of a couple of years who has grown sick of the system and knows all its ins and outs.

“Normal” is a hard-hitting and sombre commentary on the often cold and unforgiving education system in Singapore, carefully crafted and orchestrated such that it resonates fully with most of us who have been through the system, or have kids who are currently being put through the system.

And in an education system where the label “Normal” often evokes such strong adverse reactions, bringing with it the inevitable connotations of failure and ineptitude, it is no wonder how the lives and experiences of those who go through the “Normal” stream are anything but normal.

(Photo Credit: W!LD RICE, by Albert Lim KS)

Event: “Public Enemy” presented by W!ld Rice
Venue: Victoria Theatre
Run: 9th – 25th Apr 2015

The Man Who Can’t Be Moved

It is the start of probably one of the busiest theatre seasons Singapore has ever seen, what with the commencement of The Esplanade’s monumental “The Studios: fifty” project and a few other separate theatre productions all at around the same time.

One can be forgiven for starting to confuse one production with another, especially if you’ve (like me) been watching four productions the past four evenings.

There was Adrian Pang’s rendition of “The Weight of Silk on Skin” a few days back, which starred Ivan Heng in the original production in 2011, who is now taking on the main role of Dr Thomas Chee in an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “An Enemy of the People”, now known as “Public Enemy” in an adaptation by David Harrower.

Incidentally, “An Enemy of the People” was also staged by Nine Years Theatre early last year, while “The Weight of Silk on Skin” was originally staged by W!ld Rice in collaboration with Checkpoint Theatre, who is currently staging the play “Normal” at the Drama Centre Black Box.

You see what I mean.

“Public Enemy” is a sleeker and tauter version of the original which tells of a doctor who discovers a deadly secret that the supply of water that is to go towards a brand new world-class resort spa his city is intending to build is in fact ridden with harmful bacteria.

He then faces the dilemma of whether to go public with the evidence and campaign for the resort spa plans to either be scrapped or at least temporarily halted for a couple of years, or to just keep mum “for the greater good”.

What appears to be staunch support from his circle of close friends ultimately leads to Dr Chee fighting a lone battle against the powers that be, including his own Minister brother Peter Chee (played by Lim Kay Siu), who happens to have a huge stake in the fruition and success of the resort spa.

Eventually, Dr Chee is branded a “public enemy” and faces banishment from his own country, having been stripped of his post as medical director, and with his family not being spared by the ruthless system either.

The set by Wong Chee Wai is both modern and industrial looking, with both sets and costumes all invariably being in shades of grey and black, giving the entire production a sleek yet cold feel, mirroring the detached, soulless efficiency of present day Singapore.

Never one to disappoint, Ivan Heng puts in a mesmerising performance as the slightly awkward, naive and ungainly Dr Chee with the greying centre-parted hair, and commands the audience’s attention the moment he comes on.

He toggles between moments of deep anguish and impassioned arguments brilliantly, fully portraying the immense sense of conflict he faces throughout the play.

It’s hard to imagine this is the same actor who played both Emily in “Emily of Emerald Hill” and John Au Yong in “The Weight of Silk on Skin”, because of the way he completely inhabits the character he plays.

And while Ivan’s majestic performance largely overshadows the efforts of the rest of the cast, other notable performances include Serene Chen, who plays his faithful wife Katherine who prefers to toe the line for the sake of the family’s well-being, and his daughter Patricia, played by a plucky Yap Yi Kai who, unlike her mother, is a chip off the old block and wants to stand up for what she believes is right, the way her father does.

It is undeniable that we are going through a period of heightened political and social sensitivity in recent weeks, especially in the light of the recent passing of our founding father, and thus it was inevitable that the references and nuances in the play were all the more resonant, especially so since it was adapted into a Singapore context.

I doubt it escaped anyone’s notice that the friends of Dr Chee’s somehow included one of each of the major race groups in Singapore, while the choice of the protagonist’s surname itself needs no further exposition as far as our recent political history is concerned.

Many of the poignant moments in the play, most notably in the scene where Dr Chee tries to engage with the audience in the lecture hall, rang loud and clear, especially when we witness how those armed with the truth can so easily be muzzled by the powers that be and have public opinion turned on them on a dime, and it is amazing how a play written more than a century ago can still be so utterly relevant in this day and age.

“Public Enemy” is a thoroughly well-executed and expertly-calibrated production by W!ld Rice, giving the classic 1882 Ibsen play a local treatment which, ironically or not, does not seem the slightest bit out of place in a present-day Singapore context.

It is blessed with an incredibly magnetic performance from Ivan Heng, and showcases W!ld Rice at its politically-charged best, challenging us to question our roles as citizens of a democratic nation, especially when faced with truths which run contrary to popular opinion held by the majority.

And in what is likely to be a politically-engaging SG50 year like this, it is probably just what the doctor ordered.