PRIVATE PARTS by Michael Chiang Playthings

“Private Parts”

Reviewer: Liana Gurung
Performance: 3 November 2018

Directed by Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Private Parts features a star-studded cast, with familiar faces from screen and stage, including Jason Godfrey, Chua En Lai, Jo Tan and Shane Mardjuki, just to name a few. The pounding beats and rhythms, the neon disco lighting that illuminates the white, angled walls of the set fully celebrate the historical setting of this play: we are in the 1990s.

The play does not rely on the juxtaposition of awkward, gangling men in heels for humour, which speaks strongly to the talent and effort of its cast. Chua is in particularly fine form as Mirabella, toeing perfectly her combination of brassy confidence and brittle uncertainty. The other half of her love story is perhaps slightly more wooden – Godfrey’s Warren is wide-eyed and confused, and his lines are delivered with less ease than his counterparts onstage. However, it is clear all the actors onstage have sought to do their characters justice, and act with a sensitivity and grace that is the emotional heart of the production.

Indeed, much attention and care has been paid to each aspect of the play. From the slickly-designed set, with its revolving doors and hidden platforms, to the lighting design that manages to expand the borders of the stage, to the costuming and music in a stylish celebration of the ’90s. Private Parts is undoubtedly entertaining and well-executed production, though whether it represents the trans and LGBTQ+ community faithfully and accurately is perhaps another matter altogether.

It is clear that it was written in a different time, in which the trans community in Singapore was asserting visibility through flamboyance, colour, and sound – elements that clearly lent themselves to Chiang as a source of theatrical inspiration. Where in the 1990s Private Parts might have been groundbreaking in lending a voice to an unheard community on the theatrical stage, in the 21st century we now have the space to ask – is all representation good representation? And are all stories timeless? Ultimately, there is a politic to reproduction that Private Parts might prove an interesting entry point to, and that, unaddressed, might detract from appreciation of the play.