“She’s A Great Way to Fly”
Reviewer: Liana Gurung
Performance: 26 October 2018
Presently, The Substation is a beached Singapore International Airlines (SIA) plane. Deconstructed cabins lead you from the orientating safety video into a series of trials that will test your worthiness of the vaunted SIA kebaya – many, if not most, little Singaporean girls’ (and maybe boys’!) dream. Topping off this interactive exhibit is Tan Kheng Hua’s She’s A Great Way to Fly, a multi-medium fizz of a production that blends dance, drama and song.
It is a delightfully bubbly operation, buoyed by the youth and pique of its cast. Shining particularly are the trio of young, giggling muses (Alysha Chandra, Audrey Teong and Shirin Keshvani). They blend and present perfectly the power and vulnerability of being young and lost as they deliver thoughtfully- and sharply-written monologues. Perhaps part of the reason why the audience can’t take their eyes off them is because this confessional performance is less the donning of a persona than the unmaking of their own.
In many ways, She’s A Great Way to Fly is an unfinished argument with great critical potential, but it is a delightful one. This presentation showcases unique movement pieces that demonstrate the power and beauty of bodies that might stray beyond Singaporean Girl standards (Yen Then and ScRach MarcS), and songs that present another dimension to the conversation around this contested persona (written by Joie Tan, performed by Jana Ann and Joy Ng).
She’s A Great Way to Fly is less a critique of one of Singapore’s most entrenched symbols of glitz and glamour, the Singapore Girl, than a celebration of what it means to be a Singaporean girl (note the lowercase). It attempts to honour the plurality of the young female Singaporean experience with a similar plurality of medium, and is an entertaining melange of movement and sound driven by the talent and energy of its cast.
(Note: unfortunately, I didn’t see the film Sarah during the production due to technical difficulties!)
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
SHE’S A GREAT WAY TO FLY by The Substation
26 October – 4 November 2018
The Substation
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
With a Literature major’s love and propensity for over-analysing, Liana is a mostly-reader, sometimes-writer who was raised on a diet of musicals (read: Julie Andrews). Her attention has since turned to the gritty, innovative and often subversive world of the Singaporean play: the leaner, the tauter, the more spare – the better.
