Coming Soon: “Poop” by The Finger Players
Yes, strange name, I know.
I will be catching this play called “Poop” by The Finger Players this coming week.
It runs from 2nd to 5th Sept at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.
This is a restaging of the play, and I’ve decided to catch it this time round (I missed it last year), especially so because it had received quite a few honourable mentions on Mayo Martin’s annual arts scene accolades in 2009.
It also received 5 nominations in this year’s Life! Theatre Awards.
Here’s the talented Chong Tze Chien, company director of The Finger Players, with more information on what the play is about.
Chestnuts 3D : yeah yeah yeah
This was my first ‘Chestnuts’ outing and it was hilarious. Ok, the full name of the show is “Chestnuts 3D: Fried Monty aka A Nightmare on Glee Street Oh Yeah Oh Yeah Oh Yeah!”. As you can see, one can expect many subjects, but of course injected with lots of local flavours(or gossip). And true to Jonathan Lim’s style (as I heard), it had quite a lot of sexual references, like gay themes or words used to describe various aspects of (you know what). As a general impression, I enjoyed the second part more than the 1st half. The whole show was an array of segments, mixing themes, so I shall go by these, or at least what I remember.
1) A Nightmare on Glee Street (aka Glee vs Freddy)
This was the opening segment and of course, with strong reference to Glee or (Ghee?), a very popular TV series that I sometimes follow. A spoof of Glee would of course not be complete without ‘Sue’ (Jonathan Lim) who gave a report of what to adopt of Singapore measures. And they threw in Freddy Nightmare, who went around killing the characters off. Actually, I think this segment wasn’t so funny unless you follow Glee, and know the characters. It felt a bit long.
2) Customer service contest
The finals of this contest would be providing excellent service as pimps and mamasans. I think the more funny parts were the jokes about SIA girls, like when Judee Tan said “I’ve been in SIA for 6 years so there’s nothing new.” (something along that line)
3) The school rugby/club incident(s)
I actually kind of liked this segment as they portrayed the way it would have been if it were to happen in other clubs in school, like the debate society, contemporary dance club, air rifle club, drama club, choir, etc.
4) the IP Man
Ip Man versus I.P. (Intellectual Property) Man. The funniest part of this segment was the subtitling. Although it was a bit fast for some, I guess one tried to catch as many parodies as possible. You’ve got to understand the Mandarin speech to fully appreciate the jokes where similar sounding Chinese words were translated to hilarious phrases/terms, e.g. 规矩 translated into tortoise department (龟局). Haha…talk about creativity. Think I might look at subtitles differently now.
5) Inception
Opening the 2nd Act was a spoof of Inception. This was a total dig at “the Singapore Dream”, i.e. this year’s NDP theme of “Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag”, and it’s laws and regulations (specifically fines). One would think about how we’ve been fed with all these notions of patriotism since young. Not that we’re not lah…right?
6) December Drains
Nope, no typo there but a hilarious spoof to the recent Toy Factory musical December Rains. This was one of the main highlights of the show and guess what? Kit Chan was sitting just in front of me! She was enjoying herself nevertheless, laughing lots. A natural inference of “drains” would be the reference of the flooding incidents around the island plus the “50 years theory”. Naturally, what Ying Xiong was protesting here would be on this issue and the “people up there” and they really brought out the question in my mind about the song 《抉择》 – 这是梁文福写的吗？Other songs adapted were 《最幸福的事》 (iPhone)、《我该怎么做》 and 《请你告诉他》. Jonathan Lim did very well when he played Kit Chan, if National Day didn’t fall on Monday – he alternated between singing Home and 《请你告诉他》. A mighty feat!
7) Ivory Low Ah Kew (aka Ris Low’s sister)
A bimbotic display by Judee Tan with all the “Boomz” read as Ivory Low IQ. Ha! She did an excellent job and took digs at YOG and of course, the YOG song by JJ Lin “Oh Yeah”, teaching us how to remember the cheer actions. She was a natural as she made seemingly bimbotic responses.
Ah well, there were actually a lot of references but I can’t list them all out. What was interesting of the scene transitions was the use of those irritating call transfer mechanisms that companies put in place – “press 1 for…”. However, it was a bit over-used, so didn’t really have that punch anymore along the way. But it was just to buy time, so I guess it was ok.
The highlights of the show would have to be the spoofs of December Rains and the Ris Low’s sister segment, which drew the most laughs and applause. The cast was great with special mention of Judee Tan. Rodney Oliveiro has much improved from when I first saw him on stage (JBJ?), which wasn’t that bad lah. I think I saw him on TV before long ago, which wasn’t too impressive then. Didn’t know he spoke Mandarin. What I didn’t enjoy would probably be the times when the joke was lost on me, which might not be a bad thing (coz I think they might have been sexual references), and also the dig at churches (I was especially sensitive when reference to FCBC was made).
Interestingly, the audience were pretty generous in their laughter; they laughed at almost everything, even though I was thinking if those parts were really funny. But it was an entertaining experience.
Chestnuts 3D…Too Funny!
Event: Chestnuts 3-D: Fried Monty aka A Nightmare on Glee Street
Venue: Jubilee Hall
Run: 25th Aug – 4th Sept 2010
I have never caught the “Chestnuts” series before, so it was with great anticipation that I entered the Jubilee Hall tonight.
This is “Chestnuts'” 14th year in existence, and I am aware that the annual sketch-comedy franchise, starring the talented foursome of Jonathan Lim, Dwayne Lau, Rodney Oliveiro, and Judee Tan this year, has garnered for itself a cult following by now, which is evident from the healthy turnout at tonight’s performance.
From my observations, I gather it is a huge hit amongst theatre-goers in their 20’s and 30’s who are looking for hilarious comedy of the satirical nature, as “Chestnuts” takes no prisoners when it comes to parodying all things Singaporean.
First, the name.
I don’t know about you, but “Chestnuts 3-D: Fried Monty aka A Nightmare on Glee Street” might go down as one of the strangest production titles I’ve come across yet.
But that is probably the only knock against the show that I can think of.
The title seems like a mishmash of at least five different things thrown together to form one long unintelligible string – “Fried” Rice Paradise, Avatar “3D”, The Full “Monty”, A “Nightmare” on Elm Street, and “Glee”.
Which is just as well, because the show itself was a mishmash of parodies from “Glee”, to the YOG, to “December Rains”, to Channel News Asia, to Ris Low, to the Singapore floods, to all our local theatre productions in 2010, to “Inception”, to Dick Lee, etc.
The entire show lasted quite long, starting at just after 8pm, and ending at close to 11pm.
(They saved the best stuff for the second act, which is understandable, though I felt that perhaps the entire show could have been trimmed a little as the duration of the entire show might have seemed just a wee bit too long for some.)
Nothing was spared from the vicious pen of Jonathan Lim.
The beauty of “Chestnuts 3D” is that it combines what is in my opinion the two biggest selling points in local theatre – sex and comedy.
And it had them in bucketloads.
Truth be told, “Chestnuts 3D” was an all-out laugh fest.
I would have to say that Jonathan Lim most definitely possesses the element of comic genius.
One cannot praise his comic talent (both in writing and acting) highly enough.
Yes, there were the occasional misses, as is natural in all sketch comedy shows, but to be fair, there were definitely many more hits than misses.
And it is in the lyric-writing that he shows his immense skill and wittiness.
(If only “Fried Rice Paradise” had lyrics half as good as “Chestnuts 3D”.)
Jonathan Lim took many popular hit tunes and threw in his own lyrics, and I would have to say that his lyrics were all extremely well-written.
They made perfect sense, had a good flow, rhymed perfectly, and had incredible punchlines as well.
He even threw in many multiple rhyming words as well, which was incredibly impressive.
My favourite bit of lyric was when he swapped “Alejandro” with “call me Andro”, and also, when he rhymed “Lim Yu Beng” with “YouTub-ing”.
Pure genius.
My vote for funniest segments of the night would have to go to the “December Rains” spoof segment, and the interview segment where the lovely Judee Tan acted as Ris Low’s sister.
(Oh, just to mention that it was by sheer luck and coincidence that the great Kit Chan, who got spoofed a lot in the show, was sitting directly in front of me in the Jubilee Hall.)
Judee Tan is just amazing as an impersonator of Ris Low (and by extension, Ris Low’s fictitious sister “Ivory Low”).
I highly doubt that one could find a better impersonator of Ris Low out there than Judee Tan.
She did a similar spoof on Ris Low last year (here), and it became an instant YouTube sensation.
Lastly, the most impressive segment of the show has got to be Jonathan Lim’s rendition of BOTH “Home” as well as what I assume was one of the songs from “December Rains”, both of which were originally sung by Kit Chan.
(The impetus for this spoof was because Kit Chan had to juggle between doing her run of “December Rains”, and taking a one day National Day break to go perform “Home” at the NDP.)
He literally mixed the two songs into one whilst singing, and switched between the two songs after every few words…which means he switched back and forth at least like, what, 50 times(?) by the time both songs ended.
You just had to see it to believe it.
A truly remarkable feat that mere descriptions will not do justice to.
In conclusion, it would be safe to assume that the “Chestnuts” series will continue long into the future as long as Jonathan Lim wishes for it to continue.
With such talented actors, backed by some of the funniest and wittiest writing in local theatre, you can be sure that the cult of “Chestnuts” will only grow bigger and bigger with every passing year.
Fried Rice Paradise
Do you like fried rice? Well, this was the subject of the re-staged musical Fried Rice Paradise by Dick Lee.
Set in the 80s, the story basically revolves around a girl called Bee Lean (Denise Tan) who establishes a business over the secret recipe of her fried rice even as a evil businessman Rickson tries to buy over the shophouses at Jalan Calamansi where her father’s shop is. He asks his son Hennessy XO (Sebastian Tan) to “seduce” her, but who eventually defects to her side as they develop an relationship.
First things first, the sound system didn’t seem very good as I heard a lot of “noise” interference, and at some point, some of the mikes became too soft.
I felt the show passable (maybe I had high expectations?), which left me wondering why. I think 1 reason was that each character (even the leads) didn’t seem to stand out or portray themselves as strongly as they should. I’m not saying the acting was bad or anything (I mean, you have Sebastian Tan after all), but somehow, I think one couldn’t identify with them or was it too many “leads” or not enough development? Like the love story parts weren’t so powerful and though the story tries to bring out Bee Lian’s strong and enterprising character, it didn’t succeed. Maybe too many personal stories going on at the same time? Maybe just like fried rice, there’s a bit of everything.
Secondly, I think there was no emotional draw. Ah! maybe there wasn’t really high “high”?
Well, the songs were ok but I can’t say there were any that were especially memorable, except maybe the well-known Rasa Sayang. Maybe the love songs stood out slighty more like “Dreamgirl” and “That Girl”.
However, it had a better overall cast than December Rains in terms of singing. Darius Tan was also pretty good as Rickson. I was hoping to hear more of Sebastian Tan, but nevertheless, he played his good ah-beng character well. The only thing was that Taufik, though wasn’t bad in singing, didn’t really seem to fit into the show. I’ve heard him sing before (in Malay in fact) elsewhere and was good, but this show didn’t do him justice, nor did it do so for the other members of the cast.
The choreography was not bad too, especially the “plates scene” which needed good coordination (no one dropped a single plate!) and the dance segments. The sets were good too, as with most SRT shows.
I wonder how the original version was like since this was a wholly rewritten version.
Fried Rice Paradise
Event: Fried Rice Paradise
Venue: Esplanade Theatre
Run: 20th Aug – 12th Sept 2010
I was very much looking forward to this one, as this is a brand new Dick Lee musical after all.
(The name “Fried Rice Paradise” may be old, but story and songs are brand new.)
I had suspected that it would have been backed with a huge budget from the People’s Association.
And this was apparently the case, judging by the way the musical was staged.
The opening scenes alone had provided me with ample evidence that “Fried Rice Paradise” was sufficiently funded, as could be seen from the impressive sets to the wonderful costumes and lighting.
The creative team is certainly an impressive one, with Dick Lee writing all songs and book, the great Iskandar Ismail as musical director, and Steven Dexter as director.
You can expect great things from a creative core such as this.
Credit must go to the choreographer Jeffrey Tan for coming up with such delightful dance moves, though the great moves seemed to be more concentrated in the first act rather than the second.
Cast-wise, I have to applaud Darius Tan (playing the villain Rickson Goh) for putting in such an enjoyable performance, although the script seemed to give him no room for further depth apart from being a one-dimensional comic villain.
Denise Tan was brilliant as always.
Truly one of the great musical theatre performers we have locally.
Both a great singer and actress.
Wonderful stuff.
Just as an aside, there were moments in the first act when I thought I saw traces of Tracy Turnblad (from “Hairspray”) in Denise Tan.
Somehow both the roles seemed almost similar for some strange reason.
Sebastian Tan was, as usual, in his element as the beng-ish son of Rickson Goh.
It’s a slight pity his excellent voice was not put to greater use apart from the one love ballad at the end called “Treasure Inside”, if I’m not mistaken.
Rahimah Rahim was extremely engaging as Siti, and it’s a shame she didn’t get to play a larger role because she just seemed like such a natural on stage.
…
Issues
Now on to the not-so-good stuff.
Life! reviewer Boon Chan gave this musical a rather unfavourable review yesterday, and I can see why.
Truth be told, I did not enjoy this musical that much.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading too many books on dramatic writing lately, and hence I was being too analytical about things.
I felt the plot for “Fried Rice Paradise” was weak, and thus, it failed to get me involved in the story.
As it is, it took more than half and hour (I counted) to get to the point of the story, i.e. the “quest”.
It took that long for the musical to really establish itself and tell us that Bee Lean was out to save her father’s shop from being bought over.
Moreover, was the particular quest that important in the story?
I felt that the musical did not establish firmly enough why it was so important to save the shop instead of just accepting the large payout to pack up and leave.
There were a few other issues I had with the plot:
At which point did Taufik start falling in love with Denise Tan? How did it suddenly become a love triangle?
I felt this was not explored well enough.
Lastly, the ending seemed like a whirlwind of whimsical twist and turns.
And to be honest, I know this is a light-hearted musical, but it seemed rather unrealistic and I couldn’t help but think of the words “Phua Chu Kang” whilst watching the final scenes unfold.
…
Songs and Other Stuff
Part of me believes that because this musical was commissioned by the People’s Association, Dick Lee felt obliged to pander to the expectations of the PA.
I thought the musical did well to depict the picture of racial harmony.
However, I felt that many of the lines in the book were rather weak.
It felt like there were many lines which were out to milk for cheap laughs.
You can just tell when a line is trying too hard.
And it happened many times in “Fried Rice Paradise”…lines which you knew were designed for laughs but just did not manage to evoke even the merest of chuckles.
Most of the laughs were of the slapstick variety, what with heavy play on Singlish and colloquialism.
It speaks volumes when the biggest laugh of the night went to something like this:
Denise Tan: You’re a short fat cow! (or something to that effect)
Health Inspector: You called me a cow? I’ll make you cow peh cow bu!
As for the songs, I didn’t hear many songs which I thought were really strong, except for the wonderful rendition of “Rasa Sayang” which brought back many fond memories for me.
It is in the lyrics that I had particular issue with.
I feel that songs in musicals of such a stature should have lyrics that rhyme strictly, as with all Broadway and West End productions.
We know that rhymes in pop songs are allowed to be lax, but not in musicals.
Musicals tend to be extremely strict when it comes to rhyming.
For example, one glaring false rhyme that I took notice of was the way Dick Lee consistently rhymed “girl” with “world” in the song “That Girl”, which most Broadway lyricists would tell you is a cardinal sin.
…
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion, I am aware that through the PA, “Fried Rice Paradise” has managed to bring many Singaporeans to the theatre whereas they would otherwise not have done so if not for the musical.
As such, I have no doubt that the casual or first-time theatre-goer would find “Fried Rice Paradise” a worthwhile experience, and that they would probably have enjoyed the visual and aural spectacle served up to them.
However, experienced theatre-goers with high expectations should not watch “Fried Rice Paradise” expecting to see writing of the caliber of Broadway or West End.
The sets and production values may be impressive, but the writing doesn’t quite live up to the mark.
It’s good ol’ fashioned, hearty, down-to-earth local fare that tickles the senses, even if it doesn’t quite warm the heart nor touch the soul.
Something like a good plate of fried rice I guess.
Fried Rice Paradise…Excited
I am rather excited about catching “Fried Rice Paradise” the musical this evening.
Original made-in-Singapore book musicals of this magnitude are few and far between, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
Most of the reviews I’ve read so far have been generally quite kind, except for the rather unfavourable review by Boon Chan in Life! yesterday.
The cast and creative team that has been assembled for this musical is easily one of the most impressive I’ve seen in a long time (presumably because the production has a nice fat budget to work with).
I will write a proper review on it after catching it.
One thing that stands out for me – Dick Lee wrote the music, lyrics and the book.
Very impressive.
I’m not sure how many times he’s written book before, but I personally can’t remember another instance whereby I saw him being credited with writing the book.
p.s. I read somewhere that for one of the shows a few days ago, there was a technical glitch which resulted in a portion of the second act being cancelled. Strange.
Boeing Boeing
Event: Boeing Boeing
Venue: Drama Centre Theatre
Run: 4th Aug – 4th Sept 2010
Thankfully, I managed to squeeze some time from my reservist to go catch “Boeing Boeing” over the weekend.
As it is I had to give “December Rains” a miss due to my reservist and I wasn’t too pleased about that.
I didn’t intend to write a review on “Boeing Boeing”, but after reading this blogger’s interesting review (here), I decided to pen down some of my thoughts as well.
What I liked about Jean’s review was that it was quite contrary to what most of the other online reviews were saying, and it was truly a breath of fresh air.
Basically most of the reviews I’ve read thus far of this third Wild Rice iteration of “Boeing Boeing” said that it was hilarious, entertaining, the cast was superb, yada yada.
Even though I feel that Jean’s views might be a tad too critical, I do find myself agreeing with her on a number of fronts.
My friend whom I went to watch “Boeing Boeing” with was curious as to why I hardly broke out into laughter during the performance, despite the fact that the entire audience was laughing their guts out throughout the play.
I told him that it’s not that I didn’t find it funny, but I was taking in the play with a slightly more analytical mind, and thus wasn’t so predisposed to laughing at that time.
Honestly, even though I felt that the play was thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable, I wouldn’t say that it’s exactly my kind of thing.
It’s not the kind of humour that leaves me with a sense of warmth in my tummy after walking out of the theatre.
It’s farce at its finest.
Lots of fast-paced, visual humour that relies heavily on impeccable timing.
Visually, it’s quite a feast for the eyes, thanks to the beautiful set design, costumes, and actors.
One has to note, however, that a lot of the humour is generated via cultural caricatures, comical facial expressions and excellent comic timing.
I personally liked Wendy Kweh (“Jelly”) the most, as I thought she stole the show with her incredible stage presence and wonderful delivery.
And to be completely honest, for me she was the one saving grace of the show, if not for which I doubt I would have had many reasons to find the show both entertaining and enjoyable.
Don’t get me wrong though, I think the play itself is a fantastic creation.
It’s incredibly clever and well-conceived.
There’s a reason why it is the most widely-performed French play ever.
I have no doubt that most local audiences will find this third Wild Rice iteration of “Boeing Boeing” a hilarious experience.
When it’s Glen Goei and Wild Rice doing something like this, you can be sure you’ll get your money’s worth.
Boeing Boeing
Caught this last week with my mum and we both enjoyed it.
It is a local adaptation of the French play and very local it was! (except for Adrian Pang’s accent…and maybe Daniel York’s)
It was hilarious and fast-moving, such that time flew by real fast. I was like, “it’s the interval already”? I shan’t go too much into the story, which was basically an architect’s 3-timing relationship with 3 air stewardesses, which of course, couldn’t be kept up for too long. I felt though, that the male lead seem more to be the character of Robert (Daniel York), who tries to “help” out with Bernard’s (Adrian Pang) mess, and eventually gets engaged to one of the stewardesses.
My favourite stewardess would have to be Miss Cathay Pacific/Jelly (Wendy Kweh) who really gave one the Hong Kong impression especially with the Cantonese accent. And she’s probably the most “woman” of the lot plus her strong character. Haha…the best part was when she remarks “qi sin“, the Cantonese term for “crazy”, after Robert finally manages to convince her not to enter the room where Junko (Emma Yong) was sleeping. I think Emma Yong is getting too typecast as the “sweet” thing though.
Another entertaining production by W!ld Rice.
《雨季》 December Rains
有些雨永远不会过去。。。“
Caught the long-awaited 《雨季》 December Rains last night. I think I was feeling rather 感性 / 情绪化 yesterday, hence I cried quite a bit, although the story was a pretty conventional love story of misunderstanding and regret, and well, the plot was a bit “flat” as some would call it. I think I was moved mainly because the songs (lyrics) were so well written and Kit Chan’s singing. True to the poetic style of 梁文福, the lyrics of the songs were so powerful; he expresses so much in just those few lines. 在那一段段的一字一句中，溢出了重重的遗憾、爱意、悲哀。 I also discovered a few familiar songs were from this musical. However, most of the songs are pretty old school lah…well, the setting is so.
The story goes like this…
Act I is set during the time of the bus riots and 丽卿 (Li Qing), the heroine, with the help of good friend 明理 (Ming Li) who is their “postman”, starts a relationship with the student council leader 英雄 (Ying Xiong), which faces her parents’ opposition. Ming Li is actually in love with Li Qing, but he suffers in silence for her happiness. Ying Xiong decides to go to China to 建国…it’s during those times where the 华校生are still looking to China as homeland, mainly because Singapore was still under colonial rule. They decide to “elope” to China but Li Qing is locked up by her parents. She asks Ming Li to pass a letter to Ying Xiong to persuade him to stay. On reaching the ship dock, Ming Li quarrels with Ying Xiong when Ying Xiong says he cannot stay but will wait for Li Qing in China. In his fit of anger over Ying Xiong’s 辜负towards Li Qing, he doesn’t pass him the letter, which incidentally reveals that Li Qing is pregnant (Ming Li opens the letter). But it is too late as the ship has left the dock and Ming Li is regretful and doesn’t know how to tell Li Qing.
Then to Act II many years later. Li Qing has lived a successful but unhappy life as she thinks Ying Xiong left even though he read the letter. She has brought up her daughter as a single parent. Ming Li has helped take care of Li Qing and her daughter, 梦雨 (Meng Yu), never marrying. Meng Yu falls for a guy from China, 阳光 (Yang Guang)，who incidentally is the godson of Ying Xiong (who has also stayed single), who arrives in Singapore to meet the parents of his godson’s girlfriend. A confrontation occurs and finally all is revealed when Ming Li suffers a heart attack and finally tries to reconcile the couple before he dies. 终于，他们都 “走出那年的雨季”。
My most memorable quote would be “不了解的爱不是爱，是害”. and of course the lyrics of the songs.
Favourite songs? “只要你相信”，“我该怎么做”and of course the theme song “请你告诉他”。
The musical would have turned out better if there were better singers in the cast. Aside from Kit Chan, the delivery of the songs were a bit below par. It was especially obvious the moment Kit Chan sang her first song (she only started singing in the 2nd scene). 真是天壤之别。 Her powerful, melodious and versatile voice was perfect. She had to play a young girl (20s) and an older one (40s?) and she adjusted her voice accordingly, sounding more matured for the older role. I still believe she is the best Singapore singer in the past 2 decades despite the uprising of other pop stars from our island. As for the male leads, Jeffrey Low (of 《李大傻》) didn’t really have such good a control of his voice when singing, but his acting was good, And George Chan (of 《天冷就回来》) sang a bit better, but I still think he can’t sing so well.
Also, there were some actors whom I noticed who usually performed more in English theatre, and it was obvious when they spoke or sang (didn’t really fit in, especially for this setting). You realise it’s really difficult to be good in both English and Mandarin theatre.
I can’t help but think of 《雪·狼·湖》, partly because Kit Chan was in it (and 歌神 Jacky Cheung)。Think 《雪·狼·湖》was one of the better Chinese (actually I watched the Cantonese one) musicals I’ve seen, not that I’ve watched many.
Short + Sweet 2010 (Finals)
It was a tough choice tonight running through the top 10 plays again (2 for the 1st time). However, strangely, I didn’t feel so “stressed” or critical today, as i went without the mindset of doing evaluation…just sat back to enjoy the show, despite having a mild flu (maybe that contributed too).
I’ll just go through the plays once again (in their stage sequence). Won’t repeat my comments from before, but just some impressions tonight. Just a quick note, judges picked 2 best plays from each programme plus the top 2 most popular plays.
1) All the Answers
This was one of the better plays from Programme 1, but I think this time, it played out a bit better.
2) The Benefit of Friends
I still don’t know how this got in…it wasn’t very strong and rather mundane, but garnered 1 of the most votes. Well, maybe it’s really “the benefit of friends”?
3) Bringer of Light
This came out stronger (better) than before and I think it was partly because they changed the actor for the chef. It has potential, even to make into a full-length play (or musical). I just realised that this is the only play that is like just a scene, as compared to the others where the story starts and ends in that 10 minutes. This could be the reason why there’s something slightly missing.
4) My Name is Art
I think the Theatre Studio worked better for this play. As I commented to my friend before the show, the viewing perspective could be more suitable here than at The Hall due to the context (art piece at a museum). It was still funny and the audience loved it, although I felt the ending remark by the “touring art piece” was anti-climatic.
5) The Kill
The venue was a little detrimental to this, even though it still packed its punch. I guess the wide space didn’t give it that sense of “tension” and audience had to imagine a smaller area to experience the “fear” of the “victim” when cornered. Not that I felt “frightened” coz it was a comedy. I think the raised stage also played a part. It’s still an excellent play with a good twist. 1 of my gauges of a good play is that there’s not much you can add (or minus) to make it any better, and this was one of those.
6) Good Girls
This was the 1st time I’m watching this and I agree with my friend…this was a tad raunchy. But it was funny. It was initially set in a nunnery but was considered too controversial, so it was changed to a school (prefects). This caused some references to be lost (if those parts were in the original script), e.g. the part when 1 confesses having “relations” with 35 men before meeting God. It could be my misconception (must be the “nuns” thing), but there was a moment I thought “Sound of Music” was referred to.
7) The History of St Paul
I must be a bit slow but I finally realised the significance of the setting at the Church of St Paul in New York, near Ground Zero. It ties with the notion of leaving a legacy behind, finding and serving a purpose. I like the warmth of this play and there seems to be a touch of “down-to-earth”ness to it.
8. Joy of Solitude
Still its artsy feel. The way to interpret this play, I think, is to not think so much about it (despite its abstractness) but just to take it as it is, the cyclical intent of the writer.
9) Short+Salty 2010
My friend’s play, which he said he was surprised it was one of the most popular plays in the remaining top 32. My friend commented that it didn’t garner as much audience response as before, which I perceive to be its close reference to the workings of the competition itself. It’s as he calls it “intellectual humour”, where it’s a level deeper, rather than slapstick, in-your-face kind. It’s likely the previous audience at The Arts House were more attuned to playwriting. But anyway, I think laughter in the Theatre is not so reverberating as in The Hall, since it’s at least 3 times larger and the soundproofing is better. The main grouse I had was that the music didn’t fit/build the mood, especially the opening. It should have started lighter.
10) Lifetime
This was quite interesting and unexpected, especially after reading the synopsis (skewed opinion?). You wouldn’t have thought to depict marriage/relationships this way. I wonder though if this being my first time I’m watching it made a difference in my opinion of it. On the other hand, I think the delivery is very important for this play, which fortunately, the 2 actors were great. Actually, I felt that it had a much deeper meaning (which was obvious in the synopsis) despite the comical display. Do we rush through life in its routines and forget to get to know the other half?
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My friend asked me which I would pick as the best play if I were the judge. As it is, it is difficult to decide as it is very subjective, depending on the mood and focus of the audience, especially without a known criteria. It’s like why the Oscars and Emmy’s have such a variety of awards.
Best script? Well, I can’t read the scripts here which could have been much condensed by the time it hit the stage, so can’t judge by that.
Best comedy? I think I’ll vote for “The Kill” although “My Name is Art” was pretty funny too. I really loved the knife and tomatoes.
Best twist? “The Kill” too.
Best concept? Lifetime.
etc.
I know, I haven’t given an answer, but really difficult…maybe “Lifetime“?
Buttons In The Bread 