“What price glory”

Reviewer: Christian W. Huber
Performance: 6 April 2017

Hope was first staged simply and humbly 23 years ago at The Substation’s Guinness Theatre, with direction from Kok Heng Leun and performed by then aspiring actors like Hossan Leong and Julius Foo. It now gets a long-awaited second staging and Malay translation – as Harap – as part of The Esplanade’s The Studios 2017 season.

The play is co-produced by Teater Ekamatra and helmed by it artistic director, Mohd Fared Jainal, who successfully adapted a lesser known piece by Haresh Sharma, The Necessary Stage’s resident playwright. Together with his ensemble of actors and his creative team (kudos to aspiring literary translator Zulfadli Rashid), Jainal has created a moving piece that touches on topics such as suicide, homosexuality, drinking alcohol, and making ends meet in a fast modernizing Singapore defined by the “five Cs”.

The simple staging, sound design, multi-media, and use of mud for one of the incapacitated characters to create a fantasy city inside his head are nice highlights. But it is the text and strong performances by the able stable of actors – who peel the layers off their characters to reveal their vulnerability – that truly shines.

Sani Hussin and Siti Hajar Abd Gani give solid performances as the tragic married couple who struggle to deal with loan sharks, and gambling and drinking problems that are draining their finances.

Six-year-old Nur Zakiah Bte Muhd Fared also impresses as the couple’s daughter in her debut theatre performance. She is supposed to be the symbol of hope for a new generation, and it is heartbreaking to see her life decided by a couple that has given up.

Downplaying the homosexual theme in this version, the two friends – played by Fir Rahman and Hirzi Zulkiflie – bring some needed humour, as well as a layer of hope through very subtle word and imagery play. Speaking in the comfortable rhythm of his mother tongue, Rahman makes some amends with this reviewer following his recent performance in Toy Factory Production’s flawed Prism.

It is refreshing to see this versatile script meet the young audience of today’s generation. The time period of the piece is not clear (though it feels it is set when the internet and mobile phones had yet to catch on – i.e. the early 1990s), but its timelessness and relevance captivate many of the secondary school students in the audience.

For those who jumped on the bandwagon of Singapore’s economic growth in the post-independence years but cannot keep pace with its success, demoralization and hopelessness devours. Hope (Harap) holds such a positive title.

But it is anything but.

“Memorable Rendition”

Reviewer: Gabriel Lim
Performance: 25 April 2015, 3pm

In 1993, when the Saloma character in Off Centre remarked, “They laugh because we are mental patient, off centre,” it echoed across two decades, even finding its way into the O level examination syllabus. Haresh Sharma’s Off Centre has been restaged many times and it still serves as a reminder of the prejudice against people with mental illness.

Vinod (Ebi Shankara) sits on a chair, smiling and waving to the audience as they make their way to their seats. I smile back at him. When the play starts, Vinod remarks that only a handful (he mentions 12 out of 87) respond to his greetings and waving. And to the rest? He assumes that they do not respond because they know that he is mentally ill. This is a very important and intimate prologue to the play. I feel the production can push the prologue a little further to mark the moment.

The story then unfolds: Vinod meets Saloma (Siti K.) at a halfway house, both sufferers of mental illness. They fall in love, and find themselves trying to adapt to society and gain acceptance from their family. Most of the time, Vinod appears well-adjusted and he protects Saloma who suffers from schizophrenia. However, as the story progresses, Saloma slowly overcomes the voices in her head and Vinod starts to crumble. It is an emotional ride for the audience, seeing the star-crossed lovers struggle to make sense out of everything in their life.

Siti K. gives a wonderful portrayal of Saloma. Her Saloma speaks with a feeble voice; she cowers when she hears voices in her head; but above all, she is tenacious. The result is beautiful and poignant.

Although the stars of the show are Vinod and Saloma, the rest of the ensemble is no less important. They introduced an underlying parallel to the play; often putting on caricature masks and making offbeat movements across the stage in the foreground and background. This externalizes what goes on in the head of a mentally ill.

The lighting by Lim Woan Wen is commendable. At one point, Vinod’s back faces the audience and he is stark naked. A warm glow of light is cast on him, heightening the intensity of the moment. I find this moment performatively strong but makes Vinod’s end unnecessarily ambiguous. It is only at the end of the play where the audience learns of his fate.

This staging of Off Centre may fall short compared to its predecessors, but the impeccable performance of the actors certainly make up for any shortcomings – and I really cannot ask for more.