“The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree“

Reviewer: Jocelyn Chng
Performance: 6 April 2019

Loss is a central theme in many of Kuo Pao Kun’s plays from the 1980s and early 1990s – the loss of roots, language, culture, connection; of things that give life a deeper meaning beyond sheer economic progress. In the context of 1980s Singapore, amidst a socio-political environment with an almost singular focus on economic and population growth, Kuo astutely observed that there was a price we were paying as a society.

In The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree, first performed in 1987, Kuo’s concern about this price is articulated through the relationship between a little girl and a tree, both seen as “misfits” in their own ways by others in their society. The girl is also lonely – we learn that she is a latchkey child who misses her late grandfather and the language and culture that he embodied.

Director Ang Gey Pin has worked intensively on this production with her ensemble cast of child and youth performers from the Young People’s Performing Arts Ensemble (YPPAE), as well as independent adult performers. While some parts of the play have been re-devised and re-worded, it largely respects the spirit of Kuo’s original work.

This is a challenging work to stage due to the non-linearity and sparseness of the script. Both the English and Mandarin versions of the script are only about 15 pages long, there are more monologues than dialogues, and while some stage directions and staging notes are included, much is still left to the creative team and performers to decide how exactly they would like to translate the written script to the stage.

Ang brings to the work her years of experience and practice in physical/movement work¹, which perhaps is both the production’s strength and weakness. The cast performs both coordinated and improvised movement; fast, animated actions as well as slow walks across the stage. For a work so steeped in the language of movement, the demands on the cast are high. Given that the cast comprises a mixture of ages and levels of professionalism, it is unrealistic to expect total precision and focus. However, this also means that while the movement is pleasant to watch, there is too strong an emphasis on this aspect.

This production chooses to highlight the loss of the languages spoken by different Chinese dialect groups in contemporary Singapore. In one particularly moving sequence towards the end, the performers come downstage one after another, sharing monologues that reveal their personal (dis)connections to their dialects. Most performers in their 20s or 30s can speak some dialect, but many also admit a lack of proficiency in it and an accompanying sense of regret. As the series of monologues progresses to the younger cast members, those aged 13 and under not only speak no dialect, but also declare that they do not even know which dialect group their parents belong to. Without lengthy exposition or melodrama, the message comes across loud and clear.

Three decades after its first production, the themes of Silly Little Girl do not feel in any way out of place. Demolition of sites with natural and cultural value to make way for yet another housing development, the linguistic and cultural disconnect that many Chinese Singaporeans have with their dialect heritage… the play could just as well have been written today.

¹Ang is also known for playing the titular role in the original 1987 production of Silly Little Girl; incidentally, that production was co-directed by Taiwanese Grotowski-trained director Liu Jing-min.

“‘改变’无所不在”

Reviewer: Lim Wei Bin | 林维彬
Performance: 22 April 2016

改变在我们的人生中无时无刻无所不在。“改变”也是我们人生中唯一无法改变的事实。任何语境，我们都需要做出一定的改变，不论大或小，适者生存，一尘不变很多时候，会伤害到别人，甚至是自己。不做出改变，往往也逃不过口舌之争。

《醉虾》源自于1993年英语舞台剧的经典得奖作品。整出戏只有两幕，而这两幕之间穿插了四段相声。在《醉虾》这部戏里，“改变”这个概念贯穿在整部剧里，它通过了代沟、健康、逻辑思维、刻板印象、仁义道德、语句与借口在戏中体现。任何一个场景几乎都把“改变”这个词给搬上台，做出最真实的诠释。

多数父母与儿女都有某种沟通与思想上的障碍与差异。如果不即时跨越，这条障碍的路，将会变得越来越宽敞。文中通过姐妹想养邻居的猫，遭爸母阻止。电视机播了一段新电脑的广告，姐妹吵着父亲买，父亲却用婆婆的缝衣机回应，让他们知道缝衣机可用40年，所以他们当年买的电脑若用价格计算可以用1500年。父母在同一家餐馆定好位子，姐妹要求不要每年都在同一家餐馆庆祝，最终妥协。姐姐还称父母为“恐龙党”。从这几组事件里反应了，因为年代与思想的不同，因而大家力求的结果也都不同，这就造成了代沟。

民以食为天，在病痛泛滥的社会，人们更为注意饮食健康，但还是有很多人把对食物的欲望摆在健康之上，忽视健康，没有为健康而改变。父亲把“好料”——鱼眼夹给姐姐时，认为这对她的健康好她不接受，不愿尝试。父亲生日前一天，母亲为家人泡咖啡，姐姐论述咖啡的坏处，父亲不以为然，认为自己喝了40年都没事，母亲无奈，泡好立克给姐妹俩。由此可见，父亲不为健康而做任何改变，母亲则因为拿孩子没办法，因而为女儿做改变。一家人在餐馆为爸爸庆生。姐姐因为注重健康，说太多，甚至把“死”字说出，得罪爸爸。她没有顾局面，只因健康着想，没有为大局作出任何改变。

社会上一般人往往都不懂得变通，一尘不变地照着以往的规矩做事。即便有了新的方式，也不知变通。第二段相声《数青蛙》做了这般体现。A女生对学习数学乘数表遇到障碍，B女生替她想办法，告诉A可念“一只青蛙一张嘴，两只眼睛四条腿，扑通扑通掉下水”，依此类推。后发现这个方法没有解决到5的乘数表，后B女生让A改成妖怪。B女生果然“改变”了，也成功了。只要稍微在逻辑思维上做一点改变，一切也就顺理成章了。

刻板印象在我们的社会中扮演重要的角色，这也是一个很危险的概念，因为刻板印象会对我们的思想造成某种程度的影响。这部戏以幸运抽奖做总结，奖项都被改变了，如头奖是餐厅的名菜——“醉虾”，餐厅里的每个人都欣喜若狂，没想到最后却成了一幅“醉虾”的画。当我们对所认知的事物做出了一定的判断后，大家都一味地认定“就是如此”。没想到最后这树立的刻板印象却被颠覆。

大家都有一套属于自己的仁义道德。当不同的道德观碰面时，往往面临的只有几种选择，不是自己做出改变，退让，便是接受对方。如双方在这种场合僵持不下，干戈是无法避免的。节目的高潮也就是爸爸的神秘菜肴“醉虾”出炉时，竟然掀起一场道德的宣骂战。姐姐看到这些可怜的虾将被酒精活活烫死，当场与爸爸翻脸，餐厅里的每个人都在看这场“父女戏”。彼此没有想要为对方改变。爸爸就想要吃，姐姐满口仁义道德。最后，整盘虾死了，也被打翻了。道德上的不同，即使是“同种”，也可使二人闹翻。他们在这种场合之下，竟然在所有顾客面前吵架。道德是一种选择，双方坚持自己的理念，不肯为对方改变，因此干戈成了必然

生活中很多时候，我们的借口与语句都得跟着语境而改变。不论是顺应场合还是挽救自己的颜面，甚至是劝告别人都得实施这种改变。第一段相声体现了话题的改变《能说会吃》——两个女生分别念出不同食物、不同煮法以及不同地方的名字，但其中一个女生总抄袭旁边的女孩。B让A别抄袭，说自己的话。这便是一种改变，创新。第三段相声《运动家》，A男生参加什么运动都不在行，却一直为自己吹嘘，找借口，换运动。明知道某项运动不适合自己，便主动改变。第四段相声《吃？不吃？》——A煮菜招待B友人，但每当B夹起任何一道菜时，A便说一些对于那道菜的不良评语，使B友人弃掉手中的食物，换另一道。这些改变都是在我们生活画面中时常发生的场景，不论是自己身上，还是友人，借口和语句的转变在所难免。

最后，这部戏也述说了因为改变而化解了彼此之间的心头怨恨。父亲因为醉虾的打翻，而出去抽烟，姐姐出去道歉妥协，父女讨论世界的改变，父亲认为一切都太快了，姐姐却要父亲跟上，父亲也认同，因此可见只要我们能随着时代或语境，做出改变，为对方着想，任何的干戈或口角都是不必要的。我们可从这每个环节中处处都意会到“改变”的讯号。回到现实，我们是否应该想想自己是否为了周遭而改变自我，以应对大局？

“醉的不是虾，而是亲子沟通”

Reviewer: Zekson Tan | 陈迦笙
Performance: 22 April 2016

为了配合一众演员和观众的年龄层，这次的演出虽然没有艰深难懂的词句，也没有曲折离奇的情节和桥段，但是青少儿广播演艺组在短剧和相声剧本的选材上却没有因此而流于形式。反而让一群潮气蓬勃的青少年演员以《醉虾》这部家庭短剧为主，四段相声为辅，呈现了一场看似简单轻松，却又意义深刻的演出。尤其《醉虾》这部家庭短剧，相信让在场的许多父母和青少年都能够产生共鸣。

《醉虾》是本地剧作家沈谨仁于九零年代创作的英语短剧。虽然在时隔了二十多年后被翻译成了华语短剧再次搬上舞台，这部短剧还是能够贴切的道出时下许多家庭所面对的问题——亲子代沟。而这部短剧巧妙的地方在于精准的抓住了亲子间沟通的问题，以简单和日常的家庭对话和情景，贴切的体现出了亲子间因观念矛盾而引发的冲突。虽然咖啡和醉虾是剧里亲子摩擦的导火线，但是只要换个食物或物品，父母和孩子之间因各种想法和看法上的矛盾所造成的冲突，其实对每个家庭来说并不会陌生。而最后陈爸爸和大女儿的互相谅解也诉说了爱和包容是解决这亲子代沟最重要且最有效的方法。《醉虾》这部短剧就和一杯浓缩咖啡一样，虽然份量小，但是却能够在没有其他杂质的干扰下，完整的呈现了亲子代沟的问题和现象。

而穿插在《醉虾》这部两幕剧之间的四段相声也为这次的演出增色不少。尤其其中的两段相声《能说会吃》和《吃？不吃？》与这次以食物为主轴的演出相映成趣。若然其余的两段相声都能够以食物为题材那就能够锦上添花了。而青少年演员们虽然有些时候还是会显得怯场和不自然，但是他们在舞台上的表演已经算是可圈可点。这样的年纪能够有这样的勇气和表现，已实属不易。

然而美中不足的是这次演出的尾声。虽然风趣的《美食节幸运抽奖》是和中场的《“吃不饱”美食节开幕礼》相呼应，但是这样的一个结束编排却略嫌画蛇添足，尤其最后陈爸爸抽中的奖品有种让人丈八金刚摸不着头脑的感受。但总的来说《醉虾》——青少年儿童短剧与相声专场算得上是一场不错的演出。在风趣的相声演出和写实家庭短剧的搭配下，让观众不至于以太严肃的氛围，而是轻松愉快的心情去审视这个几乎发生在每个家庭里的亲子沟通问题。