NOW THEN AGAIN by NUS Theatre Ensemble

“Exhausting every possibility”

Reviewer: Beverly Yuen
Performance: 12 March 2016

Penny Penniston’s play, Now Then Again, explores the workings of quantum physics in a romantic relationship. It is based on a quantum hypothesis that the future and the past happen simultaneously. Thus, time is relative, all possibilities happen in time and space, and choice is just one possibility.

Feeling confused? Yes, indeed. This is a very challenging theme handled creatively with excellent execution of details by director Tan Shou Chen, the ensemble of seven actors, and the creative team.

Set in a surreal framework of constantly transposing time and space, daily life events are presented on stage with simple and effective use of multimedia images. This provides a useful shift between the real and unreal. Luke Kwek handles the role of Henry, an intelligent but socially awkward physicist, charmingly. His lively and humorous depiction of the eccentric guy shows a range of personalities as the diverse possibilities of his relationship with Ginny, an intern, unfold simultaneously in time and space.

However, the rest of the cast acting is best described as uneven.  Although most are convincing in playing the characters, a few seem to be occasionally detached from the characters’ emotional state or motivation. While Choi Yik Heng’s appearance and expressions totally fit the character Felix, the janitor who resembles an oracle, her spoken texts fall flat at times.

Tan demonstrates his brainy interpretation of the play by unveiling the numerous realities layer by layer in a mysterious yet systematic manner. He pays detailed attention to the transitions, movement of props as small as a ring and cans on the table, and how one scene is changed from one to another by the actors on stage.

The multimedia design by Koo Chia Meng provides a sense of the vastness of the universe through projections of physics formulae, numbers and shapes. This invites the audience to ponder on the question of space and time— do space and time exist in their singularity or do multiple spaces beyond the definition of time exist?  Set designer Hay Teow Kwang enhances the fluidity of the space by clearly dividing the various physical and psychological spaces which co-exist on stage.

The play examines the conflicts between choices and destiny; destiny and probability. These lines from the piece sum up the play: “There are millions of collisions a second, billions a day, and we look hoping to find the one that’s unique, exotic. And it does happen, we exhaust every possibility and we find the ones that give us a glimpse into the nature of the universe.”