“Tortoise Tales“

Reviewer: Jocelyn Chng
Performance: 6 September 2018

Staged as part of the Silver Arts festival, organised by the National Arts Council, Tortoise Tales presents a scenario that is at its core heartwarming and nostalgic. It is about the relationship between a grandmother and grandson, and how the stories told by the grandmother had an important influence on the grandson’s life as he grew up.

However, the piece feels under-developed, resulting in a lack of clarity about what it is trying to say or do. Over the course of the play, the characters relate several stories. And although the idea of stories and the questioning of them is emphasised in the synopsis, not much interrogation actually takes place.

An underlying issue with the work seems to be that it also tries to address the idea of cultural identity, but this is not fully developed or realised. For instance, there are a few references to Hakka culture, but it is not clear why this is an important detail for the creators, since the work is not otherwise framed as one that relates to this culture in particular.

Notably, the fable about the tortoise and the hare referenced in the title stands out because it is the only story related in the play that does not stem from Chinese folklore. Due in part to the inconsistency in the cultural contexts of the tales referenced, the fact that stories seem to play such a key role for the characters feels like a quirk of this particular family rather than something that stems from a deeper cultural source. It is thus difficult to interrogate the cultural value of stories, when the cultural framing of the play is itself unclear.

In the post-show dialogue, we learn that the initial inspiration for the work did indeed surround ideas of identity – specifically of being Hakka (both creators, Chong Gua Khee and Tan Liting, are Hakka), and also Singaporean Chinese. Possibly due to constraints of the festival, the play’s 45-minute duration is not sufficient to fully explore these complex issues.

While there are some humorous moments in the script, the development of the emotional trajectories of both characters is also problematic. The grown grandson’s pestering of his grandmother to tell him stories from his childhood, after not visiting her for a long time, is bewildering. We are not given enough hints (or not given them at the right points) that he is troubled by a bigger conflict, to explain or justify his behaviour. Similarly, the grandmother’s emotional journey is undeveloped; hence her display of emotion at the memory of her now-deceased husband is unconvincing.

Nevertheless, one very strong and engaging device is the use of hand shadow puppetry to mark flashbacks where the grandmother tells bedtime stories to her grandson. This effectively conjures up the nostalgia associated with childhood, and the innocence of the grandmother-grandson relationship. I certainly look forward to the future development of this work into a more focused and nuanced piece.

《不简单的火锅对话》

Reviewer: Neo Hai Bin | 梁海彬
Performance: 9 September 2017

“如何与陌生人展开对话，讨论艺术？”

引导者（演员）把“对话”比喻成“吃火锅”：汤底是他们预设的讨论课题（剧场与艺术），材料则由参与者（观众）提供。火锅（对话）的品质、质量，于是完全取决于引导者和参与者之间的互动。

这样的比喻新鲜、有趣。如何展开对话、推动对话、让对话有发展的可能性、如何从一个话题有机地过渡到下一个话题…… 恰如一桌人吃火锅：几时加材料、几时稍作休息、几时该换汤底、几时该加温／减温…… 我们往往不自觉：对话是需要经营的。

在整个演出中，展开对话不是最困难的。如何让参与者的想法互相激荡衍生新的观点，才是最关键的。

吃火锅有个现象：到了一定的时候，你已不容易吃出锅里食料的味道，因为食物和汤底及其他食物的味道混合。也有可能放进火锅的食物太多，有的食物煮烂了。所幸我参与的那一场演出没有这些问题。引导者的存在，让“火锅”时时保持新鲜，“吃火锅”成了非常愉快的经验。

但也因此少了些许冒险、少了一些可能性。喜吃“清汤火锅”的朋友们，可否鼓励他们尝试一点辣味，刺激出更有味道的想法？惯吃“麻辣火锅”的人如果吃得清淡些，会不会发挥出更精彩的谈话？毕竟，来参与“Hot Pot Talk”的人都希望能够参与不同于日常的对话形式／内容。

有深度的对话，应该能够刺激彼此产生新的想法。我们需要的，或许不仅仅是“引导者”，而是“Difficult-ator”，推翻既定思维，破除思维盲点，让对谈更复杂、更具挑战性。

“演出”结束后，大家聚集在剧场外谈天，久久不离开，说明了它的成功。这样的实验具有非常大的潜能，让我期待它未来的可能性。也许它提供了一种模式：为我们制造一个安全的空间讨论各种更为艰难、平时难以启齿、甚至避而不谈的社会议题。