TREES, A CROWD by Irfan Kasban

“Afresh, Afresh, Afresh”

Reviewer: Alex Foo
Performance: 11 June 2016

Trees, A Crowd emerges as exceedingly relevant in light of the proposed Cross Island Line and the potential incursions into the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. The assumption that  politically charged plays run the risk of sacrificing story and subtlety for stridency and didacticism is not entirely unfounded here. Playwright-director Irfan Kasban is not one for subtlety – he cranks up the kitsch levels and brings the audience through a spin cycle of courtroom drama, a talk show, sexy advertisement, public consultation and the twittering Twitterverse in a mere 90 minutes. The ensemble (comprising Jo Tan, Faizal Abdullah, Shafiqah Efandi, Chng Xin Xuan) hams it up in a charade of caricatures and the debate plays out like a farce.

Beside this development versus conservation debate, there is a snide running meta-commentary on millennials, theatre in Singapore and the power imbalance between the state and non-profit organisations. At some point, the issue of foreign workers is also thrown into the mix, with a comparison made between how trees and imported labour are both so easily replaceable. One starts to sense that beneath all this business lies an exasperation with both institutions and unproductive chatter.

In the few scenes where Kasban cuts through the farce with more pensive moments and monologues, what results are arresting mise-en-scènes on their own, where bare bulbs dangle like fruit from a tree. But because the whole set-up has been so non-naturalist and parodic, these scenes operate out of sync with a play that paradoxically is hyper-aware of its own artifice.

I was reminded of Drama Box’s The Lesson (2015) that broached the similar topic of development and heritage through forum theatre; both of which ended in the ineluctable tune of progress – the thunderous clangor of a wrecking ball. The crucial difference, however, was the sense of agency present in The Lesson, which is utterly bereft in Trees. ‘What can a bunch of actors do!’ a character cries. Now I wonder what Minister Grace Fu in the audience has to say about that.