“Exhausting every possibility”

Reviewer: Beverly Yuen
Performance: 12 March 2016

Penny Penniston’s play, Now Then Again, explores the workings of quantum physics in a romantic relationship. It is based on a quantum hypothesis that the future and the past happen simultaneously. Thus, time is relative, all possibilities happen in time and space, and choice is just one possibility.

Feeling confused? Yes, indeed. This is a very challenging theme handled creatively with excellent execution of details by director Tan Shou Chen, the ensemble of seven actors, and the creative team.

Set in a surreal framework of constantly transposing time and space, daily life events are presented on stage with simple and effective use of multimedia images. This provides a useful shift between the real and unreal. Luke Kwek handles the role of Henry, an intelligent but socially awkward physicist, charmingly. His lively and humorous depiction of the eccentric guy shows a range of personalities as the diverse possibilities of his relationship with Ginny, an intern, unfold simultaneously in time and space.

However, the rest of the cast acting is best described as uneven.  Although most are convincing in playing the characters, a few seem to be occasionally detached from the characters’ emotional state or motivation. While Choi Yik Heng’s appearance and expressions totally fit the character Felix, the janitor who resembles an oracle, her spoken texts fall flat at times.

Tan demonstrates his brainy interpretation of the play by unveiling the numerous realities layer by layer in a mysterious yet systematic manner. He pays detailed attention to the transitions, movement of props as small as a ring and cans on the table, and how one scene is changed from one to another by the actors on stage.

The multimedia design by Koo Chia Meng provides a sense of the vastness of the universe through projections of physics formulae, numbers and shapes. This invites the audience to ponder on the question of space and time— do space and time exist in their singularity or do multiple spaces beyond the definition of time exist?  Set designer Hay Teow Kwang enhances the fluidity of the space by clearly dividing the various physical and psychological spaces which co-exist on stage.

The play examines the conflicts between choices and destiny; destiny and probability. These lines from the piece sum up the play: “There are millions of collisions a second, billions a day, and we look hoping to find the one that’s unique, exotic. And it does happen, we exhaust every possibility and we find the ones that give us a glimpse into the nature of the universe.”

“The Physics of Being Physical”

Reviewer: Jeremiah Choy
Performance: 11 March 2016

Now Then Again, directed by Tan Shou Chen, brings a fresh look at that old love story. With very limited resources, this meticulously directed production manages to shoot past the past, rams into to the future and then back where it started again. And it does so in a very engaging manner.

Ginny (played with great timing and enthusiasm by Munah Bagharib) is a perky undergraduate working in a cutting edge quantum physics lab. Ginny is set for greatness – except all she wants to do is to settle down and get married to her childhood sweetheart. Then, there is Henry (Luke Kwek in played-down Neek[1] sexiness), a brilliant but socially inept scientist.

Enter an almost dying psychic janitor, Felix (by Choi Yik Heng).

Boy meets girl. Boy confuses Girl (and vice versa). Psychic tells the future. Physics brings in the physical. That’s the long and short of it.

Tan’s keen sense of space and very accurate grip on details keep the production real and manageable for the audience. Each playback (Rashomon style) has the audience believing in the alternative (or multi) universe that is being simultaneously created.

The nuances of the relationship between Ginny and Henry are kept in fine balance, changing with each possible time-space collision.

Honestly, the performance is brilliant up to the three-quarter mark. Then reality bites: the flash backs become tedious and add nothing more to the performance.

This show is somewhat marred by some affected student performances but Choi Yik Heng is delightful as Felix. As for the rest, less is definitely more. Nuance in text are not always about being loud and louder, or angry and angrier. But it lies in the meaning embedded in the script. Let the text speak. Trust it.

I enjoyed the minimalist set by Hay Teow Kwang (okay, we all know the budget constraints). The subtle multimedia (Koo Chia Meng, assisted by Khairul Kamsani) is apt and very well thought through. The soundscape designed by Benjamin Lim Yi and lights designed by Alberta Wileo complemented and completed the vision.

At the end of the day, whatever the laws of physics, whether the past determines the future or the future can change the past, we all want to get physical and fall in love again.

Love after all, like this production, is not about perfection, but taking chances.

[1] Neek = a cross between a nerd and a geek