“My Mother Buys Condoms”

Reviewer: Dawn Teo
Performance: 23 July 2016

My Mother Buys Condoms is written by Helmi Yusof, an arts correspondent for The Business Times. Humorous and entertaining, the audience is invited to take a glimpse into the lives of an average Singapore family. All hell breaks loose when Maggie rediscovers love and sex at the age of 63, and she discovers this with air-conditioner repairman Raju. “It is disgusting,” Nora, Maggie’s best friend exclaims. As for her adult children, will they accept her, and each other?

The 90-minute long play unfolds in Maggie’s home – a HDB apartment. Audience members are greeted by cramped up book shelves, a sofa set, a dining table and a small fully-kitted kitchen. The set is constructed to mimic a lived-in HDB apartment and it provides the  audience members the perfect illusion that we are peering into the characters’ lives. The set firmly anchors the characters’ realities and their social environments and habits.

This piece of theatre does not shy away from controversy – sex, ageing and it questions what constitutes a “normal” family in a country such as Singapore. Instead of being overbearing or preaching, the text  presents multiple perspectives on the issues. Whether one aligns to LGBT rights or is against them, acceptance or prejudice towards aging , all sides are given an airing in the play. Personally, I really enjoy the debate dramatized on stage because while it kick-starts the conversation, it does allows us to form our own opinions.

It is a pity that the play seems a little short and it ends abruptly. The performance will have benefited from more time and further character development  before the climax is reached at the end.

The cast has good chemistry on stage. Lok Meng Chue as Maggie and Remesh Panicker as Raju is a beautiful pair. Both of them share many heartfelt moments on stage. Seong Hui Xuan as Maggie’s daughter Gwen provides a lovely presence on stage. Despite having few lines, her character conveys her emotions through her body and that is fascinating to watch.

“Sex, ageing and the courage to be happy”

Reviewer: Alisa Maya Ravindran
Performance: 22 July 2016

“If you are happy, then you are happy,” is the simple but powerful mantra of Helmi Yusof’s debut production, My Mother Buys Condoms. The romantic comedy challenges ideas about sex , ageing and interracial relationships with candour. The play gets off to a slower start as some of the actors’ jokes fall slightly flat. However, by the middle of the play, the chemistry between Maggie (Lok Meng Chue) and Raju (Remesh Panicker) consolidates and the comedic quirkiness of their situation develops. Panicker’s portrayal of a Malaysian air-con repairman who can only read Malay is commendable. He makes Raju believable and nuanced – a character with whom the audience can empathise.

Elnie S. Mashari plays Nora, a retired history teacher with a love for travel and Maggie’s best friend. Elnie delivers her lines with a good mixture of somberness and humour in her presentation of a character. Joshua Lim’s presentation of Wilfred, Maggie’s hyper-conservative son, who is mortified that his mother is having sex with Raju, borders on the hyperbolic. However, for the most part he is convincing in his portrayal of a confused and overly concerned son.

The play discusses issues of religion, sexuality and the rigidity of social expectations with frankness, making for some intense moments in the play. In the final analysis the play gestures towards the notion that Nora and Wilfred are slowly coming to terms with Maggie’s relationship with Raju. However, whether the two people who Maggie loves the most can truly accept that Maggie is a respectable and responsible person, even if they do not understand her choices, is left in the open. Wilfred’s pained expression in the final scene as he discusses with his sister Gwen (Seong Hui Xian), the recent whirlwind of events surrounding their mother, suggests that acceptance, while on its way, is still a long way from home.