CAFE by Joel Tan

“People Watching”

Reviewer: Jorah Yu
Performance: 18 June 2016

Cafe is a study of people. Singaporeans, to be exact. It looks at what we do, what we don’t do, and what we sometimes wish we did but never managed to do. It’s a big question mark on our choices, reflected by the characters questioning their past and present decisions and what led them to their current state.

The play involves five characters: two working ladies reminiscing and three waiters in a restaurant waiting for their shifts to end.

How did their decisions get them to this point?

The setting is simple, and rightfully so. Minimalist lights hanging above a coffee bar that’s complete with what seems like an actual commercial brewer; a set of table and chairs sit on the side for customers to come and laze around in.

This gives quite the perspective. Having worked as a waiter before, I find the interactions between the three staff members hilarious. The manager who’s too nice, the problematic part-time student, and that one guy who’s good at his job, but has a crappy attitude. The scenario’s so familiar it’s as if one is actually sitting at a table nearby, watching through the corner of your eye.

Oh, and the language is an absolute delight.

To be honest, I don’t think anything except Singlish will work in this context. It sets the mood and the context – casual, local, and slack. The Malay manager speaks with such accustomed wit while calling his fellow colleague a ‘cheenah babi’ – jokingly, of course – that everything clicks into place with just that slight shift in language.

At the end of the day, I do think that this is the sort of play that people call ‘acquired taste’. It’s a fine balance between abstract ideas and reality, pressing on the problems that we don’t ask ourselves every day. Nonetheless, a show well done.