“A Honest Tribute for an Honest Man”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 19 September 2015

White Soliloquy (or its Chinese title, 白言) pays tribute to its titular character, Bai Yan, beyond the typical celebratory hurrah of the “he did this” or “he made that possible” narrative. Rather, it is the humbling story of an everyday man, performed in a monologue, of roles we are but all too familiar with; a son, a husband and a father.

Fascinated with theatre from a young age, Bai Yan (played by Timothy Wan), the only child in his family, seizes the opportunity to join a travelling dance troupe. From then on, he travels across Asia, meets the girl of his dreams, survives World War II and its hardships before eventually settling down in Singapore. Of course, as many older Singaporeans would have known, he eventually becomes a local television actor and helps groom a new generation of television stars.

Think along the lines of “小人物的心声” (voices of the ordinary people) par exemplar. In this case, Bai Yan strives to live according to his own principles. It is the story of his maturing: his eventual growth from a brash youth into the strong and dependable man who is willing to suffer in silence for his family.

With that said though, the performance is a little lacklustre.

The stage, which is kept simple with only hundreds of paper origami ships, is aesthetically appealing. When used in conjunction with the rotating platform placed at centre stage, it creates a rather poetic illusion of ships sailing around the globe.

Yet, it is also the same set that weighs the performance down. Don’t get me wrong. The mise-en-scene is well designed, but Wan does not inhabit it well.

While I understand the difficulty (truly, I do) of performing in a one man show, his reliance on stock characteristics for his other characters cannot live up to the mise-en-scene. True, it helps the audience to identify and recognize the characters when he switches roles, but precisely because it is a soliloquy in a simple setting that these switches fall flat and become one dimensional.

I guess in its own little way, it celebrates in the ordinariness of Bai Yan, something that all of us can relate to. Besides, it is no coincidence that White Soliloquy is part of the National Arts Council’s Silver Arts programme, a platform which advocates for active seniors participation and enjoyment.

“Dancing with Another Country”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 3 July 2015

Another Country is like a buffet spread packed full of Singaporean and Malaysian dishes.

For the first half, you sample a comprehensive selection of Singaporean dishes cooked by Malaysian chefs. After a 15 minutes interval, you continue on to the Malaysian dishes, this time prepared by Singaporeans, in the order predetermined by a game of Tikam-Tikam [local version of drawing the lot].

And like all buffets, it can be overwhelming trying to savour ALL the dishes in three hours, especially if you are the kind of person that wants to get their bang for the buck.

The spread of texts selected carefully by the curators Alfian Sa’at and Leow Puay Tin, from the Singaporean and Malaysian texts respectively, can be used comparatively to trace the lineage of local theatre in both countries. Simply put, this production allows us to see Singapore and Malaysia as two entwining vines binding both countries. Another Country is a performance operating primarily on juxtaposition.

And I guess it is no coincidence that the Malaysian and Singaporean casts are dressed in black and white respectively, and how the plain white floor of the stage is purposefully marked with black tape into a tic-tac-toe-esque shape during the latter half of the performance. Subsequently, combined with the systematic movements of the Singaporean cast from text to text, the latter half of the performance feels clinical and less robust compared to the first half, even though the order of the texts are performed in a random shuffle.

While the collections of texts are indeed comprehensive and varied, it seems a shame that there is little attention paid to the pacing of the performance. Continuing with the analogy of a buffet, the performance feels like us gorging on richly flavoured food without being given time to appreciate the details of the dishes, savour the taste and pause for reflection. After a while, the audience is drained, which is more often than not the opportune time for them to check their phones. And mind you, this behaviour is infectious amongst a distracted audience… but I digress.

Towards the end of the performance, Another Country does leave much food for thought for the audience. Titled Dance, this piece had both the Singaporean and Malaysian casts dancing a short bout with their counterpart, and leaves a strong and poignant reminder of this brief and coordinated duet together between 1963 – 1965.

An unforgettable dance duet with another country.

“The History of Singapore, as written by the Dim Sum Dollies“

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 12 June 2015

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

That is, perhaps, one of the major takeaways from the Dim Sum Dollies, what with the celebrations for the country’s jubilee beginning to intensify (#SG50).

Originally staged in 2007, Dim Sum Dollies’ The History of Singapore Part 1 is a musical revue spanning the founding of Singapura to its independence in 1965 … with, of course, a little creative twist that would have drawn dirty looks from historians.

Sang Nila Utama’s search for Singapura is (in a manner reminiscent to a typical drama series) spurred by the guilt tripping from his mother, forcing the poor prince to find himself a new city with his girlfriend Siti in tow… you get the drift.

What follows subsequently is a two hour performance of comedy and puns neatly portioned into vignettes, and culminating into a NDP-esque sing-along (with Singapore flags to boot), complete with a selection of nostalgic national day songs. Suffice to say, the synchronicity of the Dollies with the chopstick, Hossan Leong, and their “if you know what I mean” face, has the audience thoroughly entertained and actively participating.

Amidst the feathers, sequins, and glitzy song and dance routines however, one aspect that this reviewer finds lamentable is the songs. While the tunes are catchy (kudos to composer Elaine Chan), the lyrics and word play are underwhelming, even clumsy at times. This makes some of the songs forgettable and hard to understand.

Those who are not familiar with the Dim Sum Dollies be warned that while it is performed in English, there are certain points where the characters lapse into Malay or various varieties of Chinese. It is, however, not that big of a deal, as this reviewer (who has problems distinguishing between Sembilan and Sepuluh) has no problem reading between the lines.

In a city of construction sites, Dim Sun Dollies’ The History of Singapore Part 1 serves as an important reality check that reminds us not to overlook the past, even in its tireless progression towards modernity.

Yet, one can’t help but wonder whether this play with/on nostalgia, and its purpose of remembering the past, can be a truly effective piece of performance, or will it be dismissed as being over-the-top due to its carnival-esque treatment?

“Listening to Sign”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 22 May 2015

Sometimes, the one who makes the most noise is not always the loudest.

Pangdemonium’s Tribes, for instance, stands as one such example.

Tribes, written by Nina Raine, is the second instalment in Pangdemonium’s 2015 season of “Transformation Trilogy. Billy (played by Thomas Pang), the youngest in the family is born deaf. In order to make him feel normal, the family chose to educate him in lip-reading as opposed to learning sign language. Yet, in their bid to shield him from harm, the family unwittingly denies Billy from constructing his own identity. Inevitably, the story eventually escalates into the two hour long performance, as boy meets girl (Sylvia), and boy attempts to find and reassert his identity.

Frankly speaking, this reviewer was chilled by how the performance was able to unceremoniously sucker punch you when you least expect it.

In one particularly poignant scene just before the show’s interval, Sylvia (played by Ethel Yap), rubbed raw by her encounter with Billy’s family, reveals in a moment of vulnerability how she is able to find solace through music. She then plays the piano in the darkening stage with this dissolving mise-en-scene

• Billy, who is deaf, looks on passively at the side, unable to comprehend the moment.
• Sylvia, who is going deaf, thoroughly absorbed in the moment that she will eventually lose.
• The rest of Billy’s family, who had fallen silent from their rambunctious bickering, gaining a renewed understanding and respect for Sylvia.

It is this direct, this raw.

Thomas Pang’s frustrations as he signs impatiently to Yap, forcing her to continue translating his thoughts to his family, creates a palpable intensity mirroring the actor’s situation. Thus, the effect is at once genuine and sincere.

The rest of the performance however errs too much on the side of melodrama. This slows down the pace of the show, but ironically increases the impact of selected moments of the performance .

Pangdemonium forces us to reconsider our often well-meaning but ill-perceived intentions to the Deaf; that in a bid to accommodate for their disabilities, we end up overcompensating and unconsciously alienating them for their difference.

“Eliminating the Impossible from The 39 Steps”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 8 May 2015

Following Asylum Theatre’s well received debut, Holiday in My Head last year, the company kick-starts its new season with another comedy, The 39 Steps.

Adapted by Patrick Barlow and based on an original four-actor concept by Simon Corbel and Nobby Dimon, The 39 Steps is a stage adaptation of both John Buchan’s 1915 novel, and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film of the same name.

The story follows the bumbling misadventures of Richard Hannay (played by Andrew Mowatt), a six-foot-one gentleman, with dark wavy hair, piercing blue eyes and a very attractive pencil moustache. As a result of the assassination on Annabella (played by Victoria Mintey), a foreign femme fatale he had met at a West End show, Hannay is forced to traverse across England to Scotland in order to escape arrest while finding the man that may stop the insidious plan set in motion by The 39 Steps.

The play is entirely self-reflexive and parodic in nature – one actor is required to play the protagonist Hannay while another actress play the role of the three women with whom he has romantic encounters. For the rest of the characters (and trust me, there are quite a number of them in the story), they are played interchangeably between two other actors.

Interestingly, director Dean Lundquist manages to up the ante, opting to compliment the comic effects through staging the play as a real “show” (a show within a show). Hannay, in this rendition, is supposedly played by a struggling actor-slash-owner of a small theatre company, the performance complete with a set of curtains with fraying patch works, and “economical” set design and effects.

While this layer was not explicitly performed, subtle displays of Lundquist’s influence show throughout the two hour long performance, much to the amusement of the audience.

In an oh-so-casual “oops” moment during the sequence in the train, Salesman 1 (played by Tim Garner) conveniently forgets to swap out the newsboy cap that he wore earlier as the Paperboy. This creates a deliberate and awkward pause between both Salesman 2 (played by Paul Lucas) and Hannay, subsequently forcing the latter to quietly break character and enlighten his colleague.

Hats off to Garner and Lucas, both of whom have the difficult task of changing between characters at the drop of the hat. Despite looking a little worse for wear towards the end of the performance, both actors perform consistently with superb comic timing and wonderful display of physical theatre, seamlessly playing off each other with impeccable coordination.

Suffice to say, this reviewer enjoy how the “show” is conscientiously bad and deliberately over-worked at dramatic segments in the performance, which make it reminiscent to some of the spy thrillers of days past, thus serving its purpose as a parody of sorts.

However improbable the chain of events in the plot, The 39 Steps still manages to woo over the audience with the cast’s physicality and humour.

Standing Kumar

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 24 April 2015

If, to quote a quotable quote, “Laughter is the best medicine”, can KUMAR Stands Up For Singapore be the proverbial “all-cure” to Singapore’s problems?

Perhaps.

KUMAR Stands Up For Singapore is the latest stand-up comedy by the self-proclaimed STB (Singapore’s Top Bapok. In this installment, Kumar who, as the title iterates, stands up for Singapore by bringing up current issues of concerns. The performance is presented in five parts, each part based on one of the ideas behind each of the five stars (Justice, Equality, Democracy, Peace and Progress) on the Singapore flag.

As far as stand-up comedy goes, KUMAR Stands Up For Singapore manages to explore much of the Singapore current affairs:

The obligatory puns and innuendos about his sexuality, and the public’s “intolerance” of it?

Check.

The occasional wink wink, nudge nudge regarding the stereotypical personalities and portrayal of the four races in Singapore?

Check.

Thinly veiled pot-shots fired at the Singapore government?

Check.

Questions of the true foreigners in our country?

Check.

Recycled jokes and gags notwithstanding, the performance remains interesting and fresh. Kumar, ever sensitive to his audience and its reaction, alters his pace and angle of approach to accommodate for the “slower” audience, all the while gaining maximum mileage out of his jokes. In short, he had most of the audience in stitches throughout the entire performance. Yet, this reviewer cannot help but wonder whether if this performance does anything else besides amuse and entertain?

In this reviewer’s opinion, stand-up comedy prides itself on being able to inject critical commentary because it has license to be politically incorrect. In a carnivalesque space were everyone and everything is fair game in comedy, comedians mocks anything and anyone and consequently shed light on issues worthy of attention. Based on this criteria, Kumar Stands Up For Singapore did stir the waters in an increasing stagnant pool called Singapore, but whether this will ripple onto the audience, that remains to be seen.

“Dreaming of a Dream”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 24 January 2015

First things first, Somnogram is a National University of Singapore USP (University Scholars Programme) production. This means that the production was made by a group of amateurs and a group of students.

Now, bearing that in mind, this reviewer confesses to having watched the performance with a certain level of expectations.

He was neither pleasantly surprised, nor disappointed.

Written and directed by Denise Khng, Somnogram dramatises the complicated relationship between six characters during a freak snowstorm in Singapore, at a college café, on New Year’s Eve. Through the use of ‘dreams’ as a both a motif and metaphor, Somnogram attempts to explore the idea of isolation, disconnect and death in the human condition.

However, the performance feels like a “try hard” play; too ambitious in the pursuit of its ideals that simply falls short.

Constructing the performance in a naturalistic setting is all fine and dandy. However, the director seems to have misplaced the emphasis when devising the production. The performance is, in my humble opinion, too “dialogued-logged”, and is further complicated by the relative inexperience of the actors. This unfortunately creates a performance executed by one dimensional, line-narrating “robots”, whose energy level only seems to spike when they are swearing.

With so little action on stage, so much philosophical bantering, and so little left to the audience’s imagination, this reviewer can only liken the experience to attending an advance-level academic lecture, without having attended the prerequisite modules.

On a slightly positive note, the set design was simple and well thought out. In general, the stage was furnished to recreate the image of the typical coffeehouse chains, complete with tables and chairs. With a simple tweak to the stage lighting and a strategically placed stage light shining from upstage to the theatre circle, the same aforementioned tables transform itself into train station platforms. The ingenious use of the white cloth to cover the furniture in the later part of the performance, presents a simple, yet elegant portrayal of the snow-blasted environment caused by the freak blizzard.

All things considered, Somnogram represents a commendable effort by non-professionals to understanding and making theatre. After all, everybody has to begin somewhere.

Better to make mistakes than to not try at all.

“A Night of Revelry”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 21 November 2014, 7.30pm

It’s that time of the year again…

Christmas worries and procrastinated resolutions aside, it is also time for another of W!LD RICE’s pantomime production to draw the year to a close. As a self-professed musical/comedy junkie, I must confess that I had leapt at the opportunity to review Monkey Goes West.

But please, trust me when I say that it is indeed worth a watch.

Making his directorial debut is Singapore’s beloved Broadway Beng, Sebastian Tan. Tan has decided to direct a pantomime based on one of the four great classical novels from the Chinese literature, Journey to the West. It is unconventional, considering that previous W!ld Rice pantomimes were adaptations of European fairy tales; but therein lies its charm.

For the uninitiated, Monkey Goes West brings to the table an entirely brand new and refreshing tale set to amaze and entertain. For the rest who knows the story (including myself), Monkey Goes West promises to evoke fond memories of the lovable band of master-disciples misfits (culled from comic books and/or drama serials) and the tribulations they face while traveling to the West to obtain the Holy Scriptures.

Naturally in a panto, the number of obstacles they faced were greatly reduced (as compared to the 81 trials in the epic), but the story was succinctly abridged while foregrounding the W!LD RICE charm that makes it so “Singaporean”.

This panto’s success must be credited in part to W!LD RICE’s resident Playwright Alfian Sa’at who managed to capture the individual personalities of each characters that engages an audience of all ages. Easy to follow storyline, preferably with an adorable animal sidekick that talks? Checked! Seemingly innocuous jokes layered with double entendre and sexual innuendos? Checked! A good and strong moral of the story iterated during the cliché moment of reflection? Checked! The list goes on…

Much credit should also be given to set designer Wong Chee Wai, and music composer Elaine Chan, both of whom created a dynamic and fantastical world that enchants the audience: Wong through his astute use of vibrant colours and larger-than-life sets, and Chan through her composition of the memorable and hummable musical numbers.

All that been said though, I was slightly disappointed with the segments requiring audience participation, as some of the performers seems to falter while interacting with the audience. Simply put, the actors appear to be a little overwhelmed by overly enthusiastic responses, which made the scenes feel somewhat, for lack of a better word, forced. However, I did enjoyed Princess Iron Fan’s (Chua Enlai) mouthy and sassy exchange with the audience, as he seems at ease and made the interaction feel much more genuine and natural as compared to his other colleagues.

Pantomime prides itself as a theatrical genre with no age restrictions. Since its very first pantomime , Cinderel-LAH!, first staged in 2003, W!LD RICE has blazed a trail in providing year-end accessible and fun theatre to the masses in Singapore. Perhaps, this serves as a reminder that you are never too young or old to enjoy a panto.