“Sepia-Soaked Banality”

Reviewer: Isaac Tan
Performance: 19 June 2015

How does one relive one’s childhood? Look at old photographs? Meet a childhood friend?

For director G Selva and playwright Arivazhagan Thirugnanam, one throws one’s childhood on stage, pack every single comic cliché devised by man, and flood it with sepia sentimentality.

This experiment in nostalgia is set in a staff living quarters of the Public Utilities Board in 1975 and it revolves around the lives of the residents as they prepare for national day. It is meant to address the loss of the old ways of life as the people transition to living in housing apartments.

It is amazing that this Tamil production boasts thirty or so actors but no memorable characters. To milk cheap laughter, the female characters are either quarrelsome or prone to histrionics while the male characters are mostly lazy, silly, or uncouth. It is almost impossible to differentiate the female characters while it is slightly easier for the male characters as they have a specific character tick.

That said, some kudos must go to the actors for memorising huge chunks of lines and various routines. The non-Tamil actors have the added difficulty of knowing when to interject. As far as this reviewer could tell, there was no obvious slip-up.

To espouse the values of community, the eight families supposedly go through trial and tribulations for them to learn the importance of unity in diversity. However, these trials are so banal—misplaced jewellery, fighting after losing a football match etc.—that they are better off moving away or living alone if they cannot resolve such matters.

The play would have benefited if it placed the only interesting plot point of a daughter having to rush back to India to attend her mother’s funeral at the fore rather than trying to give every story equal airing.

Additionally, the production is afraid that the audience would not understand the significance of these ‘trials’ hence the moral of the story is explicitly declared by the characters. This makes Aesop’s Fables a masterpiece of subtlety.

As if things could not get any worse, the English surtitles are often four lines late and this reviewer faces the odd situation of having most of the audience laugh before getting the punch line.

The only novel thing about this production is that the excellent skill of the set designer is actually a disservice to the play. Lim Eng Siang’s realistic rendering of a two-storey quarters may compel those hungry for nostalgia to suspend all manner of discernment and revel in the ‘good old days.’

Ultimately, Quarters is nothing but a racial harmony, heritage, and national day skit rolled into one.

Unlike school skits which only last for thirty minutes, this reviewer had to sit through this three-hour monstrosity and was bored to the point of paralysis.

“Quarter mark“

Reviewer: Gloria Ho
Performance: 20 June 2015

29 cast members, 8 families, 3 spoken languages, 2 days, 1 quarter.

Quarters, as its name suggests, is inspired by the multi-racial, multi-cultural, communal living in Public Utilities Board (PUB) staff quarters in 1970s Singapore. In commemoration of SG50, this production essentially spans over two days – the eve and National Day itself. With this unique setting, Avant Theatre brings back waves of nostalgia for the early days of independence and ‘kampong’ spirit. Days when Malay, Singapore’s national language, is commonly spoken and bridged the different ethnic communities.

Despite its massive potential, the almost 3-hour production falls short of delivering more than a smidgen of it. Remaining largely melodramatic, it focuses on quibbles and gossips arising from a range of chaotic scenes. These include episodes involving loan sharks to drunken neighbors to catching a snake to hunting for lost jewelry. Each “crisis” is neatly resolved without much need for unity and collaboration amongst residents.

Director G Selva has done a commendable job in the blockings of the large cast – transitions and groupings are kept neat. The director could have focused on inter-community communications which are brief and delivered less smoothly.

I understand the need to direct audience’s attention on certain bits of conversation, the consequent ‘mute chatting’ is a bit unsettling. The actors are more than capable of keeping their chatter volume down, and this can create a more engaging atmosphere and experience for us.

The 2-storey set is beautifully constructed; complete with 8 housing units and two fully-furnished shops. There are many technical and staging inconsistencies that distracted the audience. For instance, the fluorescent lights along the corridor are only switched on after day break and are left on through the day despite bright ‘sun rays’; and the interior of the units appear to be in perpetual darkness.

There was certainly no lack of community spirit in the production. Many people in the audience seem to be related to the actors, cheering when a familiar face steps on stage. Likewise, the actors clearly enjoy themselves on-stage, playing to the audience. This is a production with a lot of heart, just not a lot of art.