This play by Eleanor Wong was premiered last year during National Day, and tackles many national issues that are taboo to discuss in our paternalistic political climate. The diversity and plurality of the issues tackled is precisely what makes it lose it's initial sharpness; it is high plausible that the point is to mock generically rather than specifically, a blurring that this writer is biased against.
It begins with a good pace, and the parsing of Pam Oei's character was especially popular with the audience. While interest level is sustained for about the first ten minutes, the subsequent content was lukewarm at best, sprinked with slapstick comedy and cliched references. I say 'cliched' in the local context, i.e. issues that have been tackled over and over again but which may be unfamiliar to the many foreign faces in the audience. There was one particularly insufferable moment between 2DS and the elder_ly where momentum was completely ground to dust, perhaps an obscure parallel to the lack of dynamic in such interactions? I highly doubt. It was complete monotony at that point, neither thespian was able to shape the conversation occurring then. There were a few good sketches, such as the one between 2DS and the oh-so-obliging policeman, however, the rest of the material, no matter how acid they may be, seemed to be mere reiterations of insults to the system that have been already made. Recalcitrance at its zenith.
The acting was average. Perhaps the play has been overdone, although i was under the impression that actors get better with more practice. Pam Oei was much more convincing than Rodney Oliveiro, perhaps due to the divide in experience - not merely in articulation, but in the naturalness of her actions. Oliveiro took quite a significant time to warm up, during which he gradually unstuck his arms from the sides of his torso and decided to loosen up. After which he proceeded to over-act, a mistake commonly committed by amateurs and well, students. His dynamic range is severely limited, and so are his facial expressions. It is true that he can take on a variety of persona, but i believe that kind of diversity was injected largely due to the script. Part of the play's momentum was lost during his longer dialogues/soliloquies as the words just bounced back and forth within the very narrow spectrum of his emotive speech. Articulation is good all around, but that is a basic requirement for a production.
The only track chosen that was remotely appropriate was Bohemian Rhapsody, a few lines of which was printed in the programme. The rest of the music was cheesy, bordering on lame, and a perfect reflection of the level of music exposure and appreciation in our society. I did enjoy some of the pop music references, such as "I Gotta Get a Message To You" (there were some other similarly lame puns) and, well, just that one I guess. The rest of the music was over-dramatic which heightened the expressiveness of the play, but not in a good way. It was like taking a physically attractive male and dressing him up in drag - too garish, too vulgar, too desperate. The only redeeming parts were the long, intense silences, during which the audience for today decided to practise a little theatre etiquette, not emitting any of their noisy bodily discharges. Tis rare, I tell you. Classical concert audiences are seldom that polite.
On the whole, I suppose it's passable. A good attempt. At least the thespians didn't murder the script, and neither did the script get overqualified thespians. Both script and executioners were on par in terms of quality.
Anon.
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