“In Search of Salt”

Reviewer: Meera Nair
Performance: 16 December 2016

An intense story and evocative acting pretty much sums up what In Search of Salt. Playwright Sarah Howell pens a tale of loss, denial, sisterly love and friendship complicated by social media. Protagonist Gaya receives a Facebook message from her sister Sel a few months after the latter’s death. While this appears to be the start of a whodunnit-style mystery, the play unfolds to become Gaya’s search for closure.

Actors Allison Wong (as Gaya), Ranice Tay (as Sel’s friend Stephanie) and Susie Penrice Tyrie (as Gaya and Sel’s mother) are very expressive actors. It is their ability to hold our attention as they struggle with Sel’s death that makes the play so heart-wrenching. Clad in black, moving within a space where the general colour palette is largely monochromatic, they enact the various stages of grief: denial, guilt and/or acceptance. Videos of happy times between Sel and Gaya, shot shakily on a mobile camera, are projected in colour, creating a contrast between the mood and the historical separations.

Allison Wong’s transition from denial and guilt and to acceptance is particularly moving. She paces her performance well, allowing us to feel the depth of her emotions at every stage of the story.

The theatre space is configured as a theatre-in-the-round, where the actors are surrounded by the audience. As the audience, we also become participants of the story, as we see not just the actors, but each other. This form of staging is particularly fitting, given that the topic of death is intimate and personal. The actors become caged in by the audience, reminiscent of how they are trapped emotionally after the death of Sel.

In Search of Salt was written to pass the Bechdel test, and features an all-women cast, with a woman at its helm. It will be interesting to see what Passerby Projects will present next, considering that this is their second production after LEAVES, another emotionally-charged, family-oriented production earlier this year.

“Less is more.“

Reviewer: Beverly Yuen
Performance: 17 December 2016

This play is an original script written and directed by Sarah Howell. It revolves around the relationship between sisters – Sel and Gaya. With Sel’s clinical depression, a missing persons plot, and a series of Facebook messages sent by the deceased to Gaya, suspense is created. However, the ending is anti-climactic with a unnecessary plot twist.

While Alison Wong plays Gaya with convincing emotions and physical actions, the rhythm of the acting score falls flat during the second half of the piece. Ranice Tay plays Stephy, the colleague of Sel, who visits Gaya to return her Sel’s office belongings. While Tay is assiduous in keeping focused on the character that is filled with guilt, her actions are externalised and hyper-agitated without being sustained with inner impulses or intention. I would advise – less is more; start from the intrinsic then move to the peripheral. Nonetheless, it is commendable for a young actress to play a challenging role with such a complex psychological state. The relationship between the two also needs to be further excavated.

It is a delight to watch Susie Penrice Tyrie playing the mother of the two daughters. She injects humour into her melancholy state. The scene of her making salad and putting pieces of greens which drop on the floor into her mouth, together with the fragrance of the salad filling the space, is delightful to experience.

The play is solemn with heavy pauses which filled the play. It could work better if it is “less salty” (not too heavy). The video images add some light-hearted moments to the play by showing flashbacks of the joy and playfulness shared by the two sisters. However, there is no coherent fuse of the narrative onstage and the video images.

While the pauses add to the suspense and sombreness of the play, the actresses need to fill the silences with more energy or an extension of thought. As is the pauses seem to be a dead pause, instead of something that speaks.

The play is staged in an intimate space, in a theatre-in-the-round setting. The change of scenes is cumbersome to watch, when two to three crew members frantically enter the performance area for each scene change. Though their actions are prompt and clean, it cuts the flow of the viewer’s experience.

Overall, I find that there is a great potential to further develop the piece, with more training given to the younger actresses and perhaps a twist at the end.