ok alright, im gonna apologise if this is going to bore some people again, this entry's gonna be like like a play review ok. sorry, had some time on my hands to actually stop, enjoy and think about these since school sem ended and before it starts! :)
anyway, as the title catches it all, i managed to catch the laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast staging of
Titoudao, a local play by
Toy Factory Productions at the Drama Theatre Centre yesterday afternoon.
im sure some may say singapore's art scene is really like crap (maybe then) but it's been awhile since i last went to enjoy a local play and i have to say i really really
did enjoy myself! after reading the synopsis a few weeks back, i knew i wanted to watch it. the reviews and the adverts that keep popping in your face, just made the decision locked in concrete. so i catched the last matinee show yesterday with my parents! :)
a quick background information on the play (which you might get anywhere if you googled it) is that it is really centred on a real-life, still-alive lady named Mdm Oon Ah Chiam. Directed and written by her son Goh Boon Teck, she unravels her lifestory from being a
kumpung girl to a famous street opera
wayang star, through main actor Pamela Oei (who very much reminds me of my favourite ninny nit nit chilli padi EUGENIA YIP). It recreates her days when she was in a large family with many siblings and a male chauvinistic traditional farmer father to her days when she got married to a 'blockhead' and having a ferocious vicious mother-in-law. Titoudao is her wayang stage name that Mdm Oon made famous in the year Singapore years, a name which many still call her by.
this play was originally staged in 1994 and its last local staging was in 2000, also performing in places like Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and even Cairo. So it's its fourth staging in Singapore. it had also bagged FIVE Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, like Play of the Year and Best Original Script, in 2001 - which i have to say, were definitely well deserved!
if youre interested, you can view reviews
here,
here and one which has a video interview with Pamela Oei and Chua En Lai,
here.
they delivered the story creatively; retelling it casually yet strongly. Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Karen Tan, Sebastian Tan, Chua En Lai, Aidli 'Alin' Mosbit, Gordon Choy and Judy Tan played multiple roles while Pamela Oei was focused on being just two: Titoudao and Mdm Oon. The team told Mdm Oon's biography thru a 1st character narration while weaving it in between the story of character Titoudao, who is a loyal cheerful optimistic servant to a poor scholar. Casual narration were interchanged by all casts; with only 2 of them at one time; usually accompanied with the timely 'clanging' of cymbal or the 'tick-tocking' of the wooden instrument. with such a star-studded cast, they were strong in their individual areas without overshadowing any other. each gave charisma and character into each role be it a servant, a narrator, student or as a sibiling in the show. it was a strong delivery made from the team which had were individually powerful actors, giving the whole production the zest and gusto.
the play was highly Hokkien-concentrated (since Mdm Oon was part of the famous Hokkien Opera Troupe) but Mandarin, English and Malay were infused in it. you could say it was a very Singaporean play; which is warming to the heart. especially putting our 'las' and 'wahlauehs'. but as you know, during
wayangs, their parts are in poetic, rhyming verses or 'Shakespearan Hokkien' as Chua En Lai called it. so you can imagine how mind-boggling it is for semi-bilinguists people like me, thus relying heavily on the English translations done on 2 side screens of the stage.
the set up on stage was realistic; as though it were the backstage of a real
wayang concert; so audiences who are filling in their seats are able to notice them putting makeup, chit-chatting, sewing, stretching all in their plain white clothes that then-
wayang performers wear below their elaborate costumes. the old Hokkien songs, as though from those old jukeboxes in shophouses, played, bringing old Singapore in the modern Drama Theatre Centre a the National Library. The tunes and props juxtaposed with the new speakers and plush audience seats. yet, one would feel like an observer; voyeuring thru a curtain. it was probably more poignant for our parents or relatives who actually saw Singapore thru the '50s-'70s; im sure the wave of nostalgia was at full force. even for me, it was hard not to think of my late grannie; i silently wished that we'd seen this production earlier, atleast 2 years ago, then maybe we could buy the Hokkien soundtrack, which we could play for my grannie while she was bedridden at home. i thought of you
ahma! :)
the characters, story, songs and dialogue or monologue stung the audience with laughter, sympathy, happiness, sadness, pity and guilt all in that 2 and a half hours. When Pam Oei's character spoke for the last part as she fatalistically tells us that opera would die when she does, how she doesnt understand how we young people can appreciate foreign cultural performances but not our own, etc. it was reflective. the sole character on the dark stage, with only her closing her costume trunk while holding a broken prop; it was heartwrenching.
even when they showed how Mdm Oon played with her 12 other siblings, they cared nothing for new clothes, rushed for the scraps of cake wrapped in a handkerchief - saved up by the eldest to share, played among the plantation trees, carried paper lanterns and actually playing with each other. take away computers and technology, how often do you see that now?
i guess western influences have really washed us asians rather blind. if we argue that we're actually culturally more involved now at present, i'd understand if we try to appreciate BOTH the western and eastern worlds of culture. but you see, we dont really even embrace and proudly appreciate our eastern performances, how can we say that? even im guilty of this too, i used to watch Teochew opera with my dad but after i grew out of adolescent years, i didnt, and even said it was rather boring. maybe if i knew my dialect better, it might help. but even then, that's not an excuse. sigh.
i guess im gonna be more appreciative of my dad's still-learning amateur er-hu playing and Teochew opera tunes then :)
Labels: pictures, ponder, reviews
