“Exploring the Modern Malay Identity in Projek Suitcase 2016″

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 2 December 2016

By the Book by E Lee Loong  and Rizman Putra
Rizman Putra’s performance in By the Book as an actor disgruntled by the restrictions imposed by a “by-the-book” director is powerful and gripping. Rizman performs the role of an “over-acting” actor skillfully, exaggerating his lines and movement so that they are just believable enough. He also executes the physical theatre elements well, never missing a beat nor letting his weariness show. Overall, Rizman’s one-man show is outstanding, infusing the right balance of comedy and seriousness. This performance prompts the audience to think critically about our tendency to conform to a script in the play of life, such that we all become indistinguishable robots in the end.

#IstillwantmyPR by Shida Mahadi and the Art of Strangers
This segment is based on the struggle Shida Mahadi continues to face in attaining Permanent Residence status in Malaysia, years after marrying her Malaysian husband. This performance’s autobiographical status lends an emotional authenticity which is  deeply moving. Shida’s voice as a modern Malay woman, and more importantly a modern Singaporean woman shines through in the show, raising questions about the struggle to embrace culture and modernity.  The performance also questions what “home” truly means, if one’s homes of Malaysia and Singapore can at times be the very thing that seems to push one away. Shida’s control over her emotions and the way she owns the meaning behind her lines is truly what makes the show memorable.

Cabut by Elvira Holmberg and Emanorwatty Saleh
Emanorwatty Salleh’s collaboration with Elvira Holmberg explores the lives of contemporary Malay women: gender roles and expectations. Emarnowatty’s character traverses time, tracing the adventures of a girl who is a “warrior princess” with a thirst for adventure who turns into a disgruntled wife, questioning where the love between her and her partner that she once though was so strongmhas disappeared to. She demonstrates control over her character, showing both the inner whimsical self of her character as well as the pained frustrations of the older self equally convincingly. This is probably one of the strongest performances of the night.

Jump the Q by Hirzi Zulkiflie and Izzat Yusoff
The final show of the night, Jump the Q is a fitting end to a night of skits that pushes the audience out of their comfort zones. The emotional performance by Hirzi Zulkiflie, who plays the role of a suicidal man’s ruminations on the afterlife, has the audience captured from beginning to end. Hirzi and his ability to move fluidly to showcase both the darker and more light-hearted facets of his character, makes the performance an engaging one from start to end.

All in all, Projek Suitcase 2016 is a well-thought out collection of stories, performed by a cast with great emotional range who truly create tangible characters with emotional depth—making for a night of poignant and powerful theatre.

“Sex, ageing and the courage to be happy”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 22 July 2016

“If you are happy, then you are happy,” is the simple but powerful mantra of Helmi Yusof’s debut production, My Mother Buys Condoms. The romantic comedy challenges ideas about sex , ageing and interracial relationships with candour. The play gets off to a slower start as some of the actors’ jokes fall slightly flat. However, by the middle of the play, the chemistry between Maggie (Lok Meng Chue) and Raju (Remesh Panicker) consolidates and the comedic quirkiness of their situation develops. Panicker’s portrayal of a Malaysian air-con repairman who can only read Malay is commendable. He makes Raju believable and nuanced – a character with whom the audience can empathise.

Elnie S. Mashari plays Nora, a retired history teacher with a love for travel and Maggie’s best friend. Elnie delivers her lines with a good mixture of somberness and humour in her presentation of a character. Joshua Lim’s presentation of Wilfred, Maggie’s hyper-conservative son, who is mortified that his mother is having sex with Raju, borders on the hyperbolic. However, for the most part he is convincing in his portrayal of a confused and overly concerned son.

The play discusses issues of religion, sexuality and the rigidity of social expectations with frankness, making for some intense moments in the play. In the final analysis the play gestures towards the notion that Nora and Wilfred are slowly coming to terms with Maggie’s relationship with Raju. However, whether the two people who Maggie loves the most can truly accept that Maggie is a respectable and responsible person, even if they do not understand her choices, is left in the open. Wilfred’s pained expression in the final scene as he discusses with his sister Gwen (Seong Hui Xian), the recent whirlwind of events surrounding their mother, suggests that acceptance, while on its way, is still a long way from home.

“Old and New, Side by Side in Geylang“

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 1 July 2016

Geylang, is a light-hearted discussion of the town’s past, present and its uncertain future, weaves together stories from across time. Tensions arise between an optimistic young employee, played by Faith Sim, and the “practical” Samuel, a rising star in the ministry played by Matthew Fam, about plans to gentrify Geylang. Sim’s character is an idealist while Samuel tries not to step on too many toes on his rise to the top. Fam presents a convincing portrayal of the struggle between a desire to please the higher-ups and his personal doubts about restructuring the neighbourhood. The way Samuel changes his speech patterns to pander to different groups, like the residents of Geylang and his bosses, is comical. Yet, it also highlights in a very real way, how difficult it is for one to manage two contradictory interests from different groups.

Nur Hamidah’s portrayal of a mentally challenged girl and a human-trafficking victim is uncanny and poignant. The portrayal of gangsters and life in the seedy back alleys of Geylang is over the top, presenting the lorongs of Geylang in a more humorous and perhaps less critical light. The play is also self-aware of its own excessive drama as seen in the instances of actors breaking the fourth wall to comment on their melodramatic lines. The play allows for a curious blend of pathos and comedy. All the characters, from the workers in the ministry to the prostitutes in the Geylang brothels, struggle to find a balance between pragmatism and the desire. Their struggle is manifested in the tears, blood, regrets and even their deaths, woefully and powerfully presented by the cast. We never find out if Samuel manages to convince his superiors not to break down the old Geylang buildings, although his persuasiveness gestures towards the affirmative, suggesting a hopeful answer for the future.

“Figs: Challenging what you think you know about love, life and reality”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 30 June 2016

Figs disorientates from the get-go and asks more questions than it answers. The play charts two main narratives, a body in a video trying to tell a story of pain, love and loss as well as a man in love with a tree who travels to four planets and meets several unusual characters along the way. Figs experiments with sounds and lights. Music intersperses the play and the lights go on and off, at times to mark transitions, but also to highlight important points of a character’s speech. In this way, Figs demands that the audience engages it at a very knowing and fast-paced manner as one is always trying to figure out what has happened just a few moments before, before the next scene begins.

Nigel Choo, who plays the man in love with the tree, gives an impressive performance in his earnest and believable portrayal of an individual struggling to figure out what love looks like to other people. Anthea Chua’s powerful performance as the body trapped in a video, especially the raw emotions she conveys when expressing her loneliness, leaves the audience in silence. Louise Lee’s performance as God adds a rare moment of comedy to the play. She plays the almighty tongue-firmly-in-cheek lines. The characters are all very self-aware of the transience of their own lives, and this is translated in either the urgency with which they try to convey their message or their heavy sense of resignation at the futility of their lives. Either way, the audience feels that there is unfinished business vis-à-vis the characters. It is precisely this sense of incompleteness that makes the play inaccessible.

In the final analysis, Figs succeeds in introducing the themes of love, loss and gender. However, the multiple ways in which the play is experimental obfuscate many of the deeper insights to these pertinent issues. Overall, it is a commendable effort for a sophomore original production.

“A classic Singapore story in the heartlands”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 25 June 2016

Desert Wine’s production of Stella Con’s classic, Emily of Emerald Hill, brings theatre right into of the heartlands. The showing is at the Bukit Panjang Community Centre, with a small stage and intimate crowd. This monodrama stars Laura Kee as Emily, and as an actor she is young. Despite her age, she plays the role of a gossipy, power-hungry nonya convincingly. Emily’s journey at first seems like a classic rags-to-riches tale, but in the end is a tale of desperation, loss and family.  Emily is an enigmatic figure and until the end, one never knows for sure if she understands that her overbearing nature is what pushes all her family away from her. Kee sustains the audience’s attention throughout the one-woman show with her spot-on mannerisms and speech patterns that animates her character. Kee also pulls off the code-switching well. The disparity in the way that Emily addresses foreigners and society people and her servants is comedic. Yet, it is also a poignant reminder of class differences, and how easy it is for one to forget their humbler beginnings.

In the final analysis, Desert Wine’s rendition of Emily of Emerald Hill is an apt choice for a theatre production in the heartlands, as it addresses concerns central to the development of Singapore. Emily’s is a story that is quintessentially Singaporean; it is about dreams, ambition, family and struggling to figure out how they all work together. Despite the simple set and less-than-spectacular lights and sounds, Kee’s performance remains impressive.

“Daring to dream for your child with autism”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 4 June 2016

“There is no dream for Josh” is a line from Falling that gestures towards the multitude of complications in raising and living with a child with autism. The 18-year-old Josh, though cognitively child-like, is a big, grown man with violent tendencies. At times, this proves too much for his mother, who is played by the pint-sized Tan Kheng Hua, to handle. Falling discusses how an autistic person can also be a sexual being even though he/she he behaves like a young child. The play also explores how one can love someone greatly, even if you fear they are a threat to your safety. These paradoxes are complex, but the cast addresses these issues with just the right amount of humour.

Andrew Marko’s portrayal of Josh is uncanny, from the speech patterns, gestures, mannerisms and even his walk. In particular, his interaction with Tan, who is at the receiving end of most of his violent outbursts, poignantly reminds the audience of how far-reaching a mother’s love is, no matter how hard your child pushes you away.  The image of Josh pinning his mother against the wall under a hanging calendar that showcases an image of Jesus, is a powerful symbol of the daily tussle with faith that Tan’s character, Tami, struggles with. Together, the pair is outstanding, and no doubt steals the show.

Nana, Josh’s grandmother (Neo Swee Lin), presents a nuanced and believable picture of an outsider’s response and reaction to the idiosyncrasies of a person with autism.  Lisa, Josh’s sister (Fiona Lim), convincingly fulfills the archetype of the angry teen sibling, although this interesting dimension could be explored more purposefully.

In the final analysis, Falling offers no solutions to the “problem” of Josh’s future. However, the play does tell of hope, the characters’ determination to make the best of their circumstances, and a desire to find joy in the little things. In these ways, the play is authentic in its depiction of the realities of caring for a child with autism.

“Struggling with the Outside from the Inside”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 30 April 2016

Dark Room opens and ends with monologues that are inspired by true accounts from prisoners, immersing the audience in the experiences of the characters and their loved ones from the get-go. The play walks you through the experiences of convicts from their court date until their release date, and comprehensively addresses the ups and downs as it develops.

The star-studded cast, with the likes of Lim Kay Siu and Noor Effendy Ibrahim, does not disappoint. The actors interject comedy and grief and introspection throughout, so the lengthy run time of two hours is not difficult to sit through. What is most powerful about this performance is the diversity of characters, in terms of ethnicity socio-economic class. A Malay uncle in his forties, young, well-educated gay men, a Chinese waiter and a foreign worker all share the same cell.

The cast’s use of space is praise-worthy, as the male characters work within a mock-up of a Changi prison cell for the bulk of the show. Besides showcasing the daily routines of prison life and how the characters cope with their new circumstances, Dark Room also benefits from the perspectives of parents and loved ones, and shows how a prison sentence punishes the jailed person’s family as well. In essence, this is the central struggle all of the characters face: the idea that life in a jail cell is about figuring out one’s past, present and future while all the while being conscious of, but out of touch with the outside world.

Nelson Chia’s Chinese monologue about caning in the prisons has the audience in total silence. His character’s empathy with the prisoners who are caned is equal parts moving and disturbing. In his speech, the humanity of each prisoner is brought to the forefront, as he strips away labels of crime, shame to highlight the universal experiences of pain and humiliation. Shafiqhah Efandi is the only female inmate in the play, and single-handedly conveys women’s experiences of prison. While her performance is compelling in terms of its somberness, it is ultimately one-dimensional in that the upsides of prison life, no matter how minute, are barely discussed.

In the final analysis, the identities of the prisoners and the crimes for which they are incarcerated are never revealed. Instead the play focuses on how “normal” these archetypical prisoners are and raises a long-debated question: just how effective and ethical is the current prisons system?

“F4t kids are harder to kidnap”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 21 February 2016

The tone of F4t Kids Are Harder to Kidnap is set the moment you enter the Play Den. The beanbag chairs and the simple black and white programme book, which the cast calls a “menu”, clues the audience in on that this will be “casual viewing”. While the audience streams in, local musical duo the Glad Stones warms up the stage with some original pieces.

When the cast steps on stage, it is clear from the smiles from the audience that their energy is infectious. F4t Kids takes on a uniquely interactive format. The entire production consists of thirty-one sketches and the cast attempts to perform all of them within just sixty minutes. The twist is that the audience chooses the sequence in which the skits are performed, by choosing a play from the “menu” and shouting its corresponding number from one to thirty-one whenever the cast says, “Next!”.

This means, of course, that every performance is unique.

The audience interaction is attractive but what really impresses is how the skits discusses a wide-range of issues with wit and humour.

The sketches comments on a variety of light-hearted issues from a local fast-food chain’s recent attempt to sell up-market food, stereotypes that foreigners have about Singapore and common local gripes such as the seasonal haze.

In the midst of the many laughs, one skit that stands out is “Jason”. It is a somber piece about two parents coming to terms with their four-year-old transgender son. In the sketch lasting less than five minutes, actors Pavan and Ross manages to convey the complex emotions as parents, but also the hope the child is finally happy in her own skin.

F4t Kids as a production works because of its accessible content, engaging actors and interactive format. I look forward to watching their next run in 2017.