The main areas of exploration would include:
- The difference between what it means to be a successful man versus a successful woman
- Assumptions of male expectations of workplace success versus female expectations of family commitments
- The assumption of cheating within a relationship as being expected and unsurprising for men but not for women
- Assumptions of male indifference versus female desperation in straight relationships
- Assumptions of male initiative versus female submission in straight relationships
Many discussions have arisen about the way in which men and women relate to each other, as well as the differences in expectations of male versus female behavior in personal and public spheres. The team seeks to use the method of gender-swap casting as a means to throw light upon these issues and provide a more critical lens questioning the validity of ingrained expectations.
The workshop aims to then examine how the transference of these explorations from text-based questions to physically embodied performance calls into question the reality of assumptions held, and whether or not a gender-swapped performance of the text can still be convincing, realistic, and relatable to present-day straight relationships in an urban, metropolitan setting.
In addition, there would be the added advantage of also giving the workshop’s team and audience members an opportunity to explore the limitless possibilities of unconventional casting choices, allowing the process of casting to work as an apparatus via which an existing work may be able to yield previously unearthed insights. The team can then explore how this can be a framework which may be applied to any other type of text-based theatrical work, with The Last Five Years being the test-bed for such an exploration.
The workshop aims to be the first part of an on-going process, working towards a fully-staged gender-swapped adaptation of The Last Five Years in the near future.
Producer – Ethel Yap
Director – Cherilyn Woo
Dramaturg – Jo Tan
Music Director – Aloysius Foong
Cast:
Amy Wellerstein – Ethel Yap
Danny Hiatt – Joash Tang
The Last Five Years: A Gender Reversal was developed in residence at Centre 42’s Basement Workshop from August to September 2018.
1 September 2018:
Performance at Black Box, Centre 42