“Pigeons”

Reviewer: Muhammed Faizad Bin Salim
Performance: 30 January 2015

Would you feed pigeons, encouraging them to populate and embrace them as part of the landscape or would you avoid them like the plague and hope you won’t be blessed by their droppings?

Or worse still, would you make it your life’s mission to eradicate them off the face of the earth?

What on the surface appears to be a glimpse into the lives of two ordinary teenage boys very quickly degenerates into something much darker. Ashley (played endearingly by Ebi Shankara) and his best mate Amir (Khairul aka Kaykay) swiftly become pawns in the larger socio-political game of life.

The dark themes in the narrative are echoed in the lighting design – for a significant amount of time at the start of the play, Karl (played by Lian Sutton) has his face hidden from the audience’s view as he walks and delivers his lines. He lurks in the background, in the shadows silently observing the other characters. Towards the end of the play, in the café scene, it comes to light (quite literally) that Karl is no innocent bystander but a menacing mastermind.

Overall, the cast has great chemistry with one another and does justice to the script – although some are more successful than others when delivering the British accent. There are genuinely hilarious scenes of the two protagonists just getting high, wasted and crashing a car as well as cute, flirtatious scenes between Ashley and Amir’s sister Aminah (Nur Sahirrah Safit) which are crucial in varying the tempo and the mood of an otherwise serious play.

The set was simple and meant to mimic a cartoonish / fantasy world (according to director Claire Devine in the programme booklet). I am not quite sure if it achieved that desired effect. The set changes could be a bit faster and more fluid as the changes affect the momentum of the play and makes the different scenes come across as separate vignettes instead of being part of a larger narrative.

Be warned also of the abrupt ending to this 75-minute play: it was rather strange having the house lights come on immediately after something horrific happens to one of the protagonists and having a front-of-house staff address you as school-going children, demanding that you vacate the building immediately because of what has just transpired. It was the only time in the play that the audience was addressed directly. Whilst not quite gelling with the rest of the play, it does make you think of how complicit the audience was in the turn of events both in the play as well as in real life.

Are we passive observers of the injustices that surround us?

Have we been unwitting perpetrators of hate, racism and bigotry?

“Premise Flies Away”

Reviewer: Gabriel Lim
Performance: 29 January 2015

There are pawns and there are players. Pigeons explores the manipulative forces behind throwing the cats amongst the pigeons but at the expense of the tribulations between two sixteen-year-old teenagers Amir (Kaykay Nizzam) & Ashley (Ebi Shankara), literally.

Racial and religious differences are indeed touchy issues, and more often than not, discussions on the topic are very superficial. Pigeons disappoints in that it brings no new light to the situation.

In fact, the play is misleading. Except for a few racial undertones, it delves more into classic rebellious teenage life: Amir and Ashley dabbling in drugs, alcohol and sex. The director is unable to draw out the impact of racism beyond the teenage angst.

The director creates a believable piece on teenage life and modern living (and the lack of awareness to one environment). However, this is insufficient. The character Karl (Lian Sutton) was badly plotted in the play, and all the fuss at the end is more a “what’s the big deal” moment than an epiphany. The plot is confusing at times and talks to itself rather than to the audience.

Kaykay Nizzam stands out in his role as an unfilial son who literally drives his father to his grave. Along with Ebi Shankara, they presented a genuine naïvety and recklessness.

Pigeons is honest and pleasant but it had ambitions it could not and should not be made to fulfill.