“选择就在自己的手里”

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

阿唐因为母亲逝世，与舅父舅母同住，觉得自己寄人篱下，常被舅父舅母之女小红比下去，在家中没有任何归属感，因而选择离家出走，后与悟空、八戒、沙僧展开一段奇幻旅程。通过这样的一个语境与一则奇幻故事，剧情显示了每个人都有自己的问题，应该想办法解决问题，只要通过另一个角度想想，进行反思，便可解决问题，最后雨过天晴。至于如何解决，方法与抉择都在自己手里。这些选择体现通过家庭，命运，解决难题等方式体现。

每个主人公都有自身的问题，悟空无法控制自己的个性，大闹天宫，与“阿唐”结识时，还是不遵守法门，但是他往另一角度想，探讨问题，终归一我佛，这是一种选择。八戒原与高家女结婚，想当高家女婿，后终成了和尚，这是一种选择。沙僧则是卷帘大将，需靠西天取经副职，换另一角度想，他心甘情愿保唐僧西去，这也是一种选择。

师徒四人西去，在这场戏里只遇到两大难，一则红孩儿，二则火焰山。师徒四人无法灭三昧真火，想请求观音菩萨帮忙，但他们知道不该什么事都去请神帮忙，因尝试自己解决，由此可见他们动脑筋，扩大思维，改变思想的过程，选择解决事情的方法。来到火焰山时，也尝试用各种方法去取芭蕉扇来灭火。有意无意中做出了许许多多的选择，有些是对的，相对而言有的选择是不恰当的，命运是掌握在自己的手中，选择将决定未来，好好把握。

最后，阿唐得选择三个徒弟或回到现实，他选择了后者。命运也给了他另一选择，去寻找自己已故的母亲还是回到舅父舅母身边，最后他选择了后者，每一种选择都有他可行之处，但促使这些选择的是自己心里面真正的想法。选择也分为理性或感性，对于阿唐而言，选择去看自己的母亲是感性的，回到舅父身边则是理性的，因为他认为若不回家，舅父他们会担心，也认清母亲已故的事实。

多少人在做出选择时都可以随心所欲？跟着自己的心？还是倚赖一份理性去约束自己的感性？这是我在这部戏里得到最大的收获。

“An ‘A’ Production- Artistic, Amusing and Adept!”

Reviewer: Beverly Yuen
Performance: 26 November 2016

Written by Alfian Sa’at, directed by Sebastian Tan and with music composed by Elaine Chan, Monkey Goes West is an award-winning play first staged in 2014 to sold-out audience.

The cross-cultural and cross-gender casting is hilarious and effective. Siti Khalijah Zainal, who cross-dresses as Sandy, brings a dynamic comic and hip upbeat depiction of this traditionally down-to-earth character. Siti Khalijah also plays the Chinese goddess Guan Yin with a motherly disposition. Chua Enlai plays Auntie Fanny and Princess Iron Fan who mispronounce words incessantly to rib-tickling effect.

Joshua Lim plays a school boy who is mistaken as the monk Tang Xuan Zang by the Monkey King (Sugie Phua), Pigsy (Frances Lee) and Sandy. He interacts with the audience and engages both adults and children with aplomb. He is the charismatic crowd-pleaser of the evening! Phua plays the Monkey King with his agile movements, and sings in the midst of vigorous movements which requires skillful execution of breath, rhythm and emotions simultaneously. This despite  a few mishaps while executing his stunts. Lee brings Pigsy to life with its lumpy movement, and the constant “oink” in her lines.

A huge credit has to go to the playwright, Alfian, who fuses an epic fantasy and the modern Singapore using witty localized dialogue filled with double entendre of political and sexual innuendos for the adults among the children crowd. The music and songs are a mix of traditional Chinese music, pop and rock. The highlight is the duet between Siti Khalijah’s soothing tune and Lim’s Chinese childhood song “Mother is the Best in the World”.

Set design by Wong Chee Wai fluidly and swiftly changes from one landscape to the next, with the characters scaling mountains and seas. Scenes which involve children from Martial House Kids performing their aerobatic fights are a joy to watch. The shadow play by The Finger Players depicting the fight between the Monkey King and King Bull (Darius Tan) brings the contests between the characters to a new dimension.

Monkey Goes West is a must-watch production for anyone who is looking for an evening of extravaganza with a dip in the arts. This is a production artistically, amusingly and adeptly created for Singaporeans of all ages.

“Making fun (of)”

Reviewer: Jeremiah Choy
Performance: 24 November 2016

“Pantomines are never politically correct. They poke both gentle and cruel fun at our human foibles and, through humour, bring us face-to-face with our greed, prejudice, cowardice and dishonesty.” (Taken from the programme of Monkey Goes West.)

And true enough from the word “GO”, in Monkey Goes West, the fun begins with the laugh-a-minute incisive digs at societal odds and behaviours.

Alfian Sa’at’s two-year-old script still scintillates. His not-so-subtle references to Singapore’s perpetual quest for the best and other astute multi-racial and inter-cultural observations make for perfect material in a pantomime.

But amidst the laughter, there are lots of gems of self-reflection, self-questioning and self-discovery.

From the grand opening of the gold-gilded celestial palace to a humble trophy-laden HDB flat, Wong Chee Wai’s set provides both a supernatural and natural backdrop to a well-integrated tale of a boy seeking enlightenment to his lone existence in “over-achieving” Singapore.

Ah Tang (joyfully played by Joshua Lim) leads a motley crew of “monsters”: Monkey King (sensitively played by Sugie Phua), Pigsy (comical portrayal by Frances Lee) and Sandy (played with great skill by Siti Khalijah). As they journey west (Jurong West, that is), Ah Tang realises different (uniquely Singaporean) traits within himself: Naughty, Greed and Stubborn – traits that he eventually conquers and overcomes.

The clever doubling of Uncle Moo/King Bull (depicted with much gusto by Darius Tan), Auntie Fanny/Princess Iron Fan (Chua Enlai is irresistibly coy in this role) and their over-achieving child Xian Hong/Red Boy (Kimberly Chan brings a keen portrait to the show) not only brought the house down, but also highlighted the often-misunderstood “villains” of our society.

It is in the double-speak of Auntie Fanny/Princess Iron Fan that we get to hear our most politically incorrect inner voices on discrimination and self-incrimination. Amidst the “nail-cracking laughter, we pause to suddenly realise how insensitive we can be at times.

The cross-dressing elements of a pantomime are not lost on the audience either. Much success is rested upon the clever interplay of not only genders, but also race in casting. It is lovely that a Malay actress plays Guanyin Ma (who is a universal symbol of mothers,) or woman-crazy Pigsy played by a woman, or that Auntie Fanny, who swallows, played by a man. The double-meaning (almost sexual) innuendos are not lost on the more enlightened audience as well.

It is indeed a magnificent cast that director Sebastian Tan has assembled and mobilized – all playing to their individual and combined talents. The amazement never stops – with super costume changes (Tube Gallery), fantastic hair (Ashley Lim) and make up (The Make Up Room led by Bobbie Ng) that keeps the audience going oohs and aahs each time.

Audience participation is key to a pantomime. The cast surely whips up a storm each time a danger prevails. It is not only the child in the audience that is screaming, the grown ups in the audience are equally excited as well.

The most illuminating moment for me is the song “Sum Of Our Parts”. Here is the crux and heart of the musical – that the production is not just making fun of (as pantomimes ought to), it is also fun-making.

As Auntie Fanny aptly puts, never under-“inseminate” (estimate)’ – the power of theatre. It does not matter what race, language or religion we are, theatre never fails to create awareness within us so long as we are open minded. And hopefully, we will stop being judgmental in our prejudices and start having fun.

“Westward Bound”

Reviewer: Andre Theng
Performance: 12 December 2014, 7.30pm

The West of Singapore is nothing like the East. While the East is considered by many to be a peaceful and historical area of Singapore: full of heritage buildings and good food – the West can lay no such claim. It is thought of as “ulu” (the boondocks) and uninteresting. And so Wild Rice’s latest pantomime, Monkey Goes West, is pretty spot on when it plays on how Jurong West is “not ghetto, okay”.

Like previous years’ successful local adaptations of well-known tales such as Cinderal-LAH! and Jack & the Bean Sprout! Monkey Goes West borrows from the Chinese epic, Journey to the West and transplants its characters to Singapore where Ah Tang (Joshua Lim) is making his journey from Haw Par Villa back home to Jurong West. Along the way, he is joined by characters from the original story, including the Monkey King (Sugie Phua), Pigsy (Frances Lee), Princess Iron Fan (Chua Enlai), Red Boy (Kimberly Chan), King Bull (Lim Kay Siu) and Sandy (Siti Khalijah).

That said, the precise premise of the show isn’t really the main point. The point is that everyone gets imbibed with festive cheer, and left entertained by the jokes. And entertain it did. The jokes and the excellent music by Elaine Chan left the audience in stitches from start to finish, from Enlai’s cross-dressing and his mispronounced words (“You deserve a standing ovulation”), to local references to the haze and the “Yellow River (Ribbon) Project”. Monkey Goes West covers all bases – cute children doing martial arts, audience participation, pop culture references, adult jokes, emotional moments (the sub-plot of the Ah Tang’s dead mother) and moral lessons on the importance of family and of teamwork.

The entire production is ably supported by the spiffy sets by Wong Chee Wai that includes a giant lotus and gold pillars. The tight directing by first-time director Sebastian Tan, flamboyant costumes by the Tube Gallery and a clever script by Alfian Sa’at all made for an excellent production.

Sure, at times the jokes were lame and predictable that I felt like I was watching a Channel 8 variety show or the President’s Star Charity. But only the Grinch would grumble after watching this production, and I cannot deny that I laughed plenty of times. I left the theatre humming the theme song, and I felt a whole lot more festive than before the performance. Monkey Goes West is truly a production for people of all ages and it certainly embodies the spirit of the season.