“Identity?”
Reviewer: Edward Eng
Performance: 6 July 2019
Twelve years ago, Teater Ekamatra staged Mat Champion as a children’s musical about three superheroes coming together to defeat a language-stealing villain.
In that version of the musical, the superheroes fought to save citizens who were losing their language, the conceit being that languages must be physically saved from hegemonic forces in an increasingly globalised world. This starts with using the Malay language where it may not be convenient, and practising it even when it gets tedious. Without language, the citizens quite literally lose their identity and their life force.
2019’s Mat Champion brings the idea of practicing Malay to retain one’s identity offstage: the play’s programme booklet contains language exercises for children.
But the story is a lot more muddled than I thought it’d be. This time around, there are six characters split into two rival superhero teams: the all-male Mat Champion (Fir Rahman, Syaiful Ariffin, Norisham Osman) and the all-female Minah Rong Geng (Siti Maznah, Munah Bagharib, Farhana M Noor). Each character plays a specific archetype, ranging from Elvis-pakcik to flower power girl.
There is a subplot about the two teams challenging each other before coming together. Another arc focuses on Mat Ketat (Fir Rahman), whose feelings of difference from the others drive him to become a sort of classic monster-with-a-good-heart villain. Both mix in moral lessons about how friendship is more important than competition, although the adages fall flat on me.
The performance is largely enjoyable by last quarter and it is all good fun thanks to the sheer energy of the cast. Particularly exciting is the pop art scenic design, which plays briskly with the featherweight nostalgia that tinges most of director Rizman Putra’s shows. I feel too that the aesthetic value played better to the mostly young audience, the way Disney’s Mulan did to me when I was younger.
That said, as a Cantonese bereft of ability in my own mother tongue, I feel that the play could have done so much more than just entertain and chide. This staging of Mat Champion was a missed opportunity to inspire.
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
MAT CHAMPION by Teater Ekamatra
4 – 7 July 2019
LASALLE College of the Arts
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Edward is a playwright whose work has been performed locally as well as in China and across the UK. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at university and is interested in using the lenses he has picked up there to celebrate the nooks and crannies of Singapore theatre.
