Greetings!

Greetings readers!

Apologies for not posting for quite a while. I have been studying in the United States for the past few months and in the midst, I managed to catch a number of plays and musical productions.
I know this blog was initially established to write reviews for shows happening in Singapore but since I am already here in the States, I shall share with you some reviews on the shows that I have watched.

:)

Have a great day ahead!

Rising Son

I managed to catch Rising Son on 29th March 2014, the show's official opening night.

Rising son is part one of the Family Trilogy, featuring original plays written by acclaimed Singapore theatre stalwart Dick Lee. This is Dick Lee's first "serious" play that is also inspired by his father's life. It is set against the backdrop of the Japanese occupation in Katong, and tells a very unique story of his father, aunt and a Japanese army lawyer who lives next to them.

The reason why I said it is unique is because it provides a very different perspective and insight of what went on during the Japanese Occupation. Personally for me, I am born in the 90s where war seem something quite distant away. What exactly happened during the Japanese Occupation were mostly told to me from my grandparents. Those stories that I heard showed me how much fear and danger there were lurking every single day then. People were constantly living in fear. However, in this play, it presents a slightly different take on things. While acknowledging the prevalence of underlying fear and danger happening outside, it shows a somehow awkward but friendly relationship among the young Sunny Lee (played by Tan Shou Chen), his sister (played by Seong Hui Xuan) and their new Japanese neighbour Colonel Hiroyuki Sato (played by Caleb Goh) who was unlike the usual Japanese around. Sato san constantly sends food to Sunny's family and even lends him books to read. In exchange, Sunny lends Sato who has a love for music and literature English records to listen to. Sato was hardly the evil soldiers Sunny sees on the street, he was soft-spoken, courteous and even reads Shakespeare and poetry. Thus, Sunny was initially doubtful of Sato's actions, constantly fearing about what evil things Sato could do to them. As time goes by, an awkward friendship is formed between them. As much as Sunny wants to trust Sato, he is reminded of the fact that the Japanese where the colonists who broke and destroyed the peace and stability that was original present. This complex and conflicting relationship is one of the main highlight of this play.

This is definitely a refreshing story, especially when viewed by someone like me who is born in the 90s. The play has a great cast too. Caleb Goh who plays Colonel Hiroyuki Sato was quite outstanding. I felt that he handled his emotions well throughout this play, bringing the audience into his world of conflicts and emotions.

I highly recommend this play, especially since it is also an original Singapore play that is well-written.
Rising Son runs from Thursday 27th March to Saturday 12 April 2014 at the DBS Arts Centre at the Singapore Repertory Theatre.

The House of Bernarda Alba

Federico Garcia Lorca wrote "The House of Bernarda Alba" or La Casa de Bernada Alba in 1936, two months before his execution at the young age of 38.

This is a really dark play written by a man about women. This is probably one of the few plays that has an all-women cast. 

I love how Chay Yew and Glen Goei are able to adapt and contextualize the story into Singapore's Peranakan community while largely retaining Lorca's original work.

The House of Bernarda Alba is a play set in a living hell. It begins with a grieving, dominating matriarch, Bernarda Alba (played by Claire Wong) who after burying her husband is intently set on tightly controlling the lives of her five unmarried grown-up daughters. 

Some of the cast members clearly did stand out from the rest. For example, Jo Kukathas who plays Poncia aptly portrays the fiery, nosy yet loyal servant. Also, Glory Ngim definitely stands out as her role as Adela, displaying a source of suspense and free-spiritedness at the same time. I feel that she brings out the symbol of rebellion pretty well through her acting. 

Besides the casting, I love the careful and detailed production and set design. The costumes are beautifully selected and the presence of beaded slippers, weaving, even those olden day looking shophouse windows allow one to relate what is happening in the rule-bound and strict Peranakan family. 

The sounds and silences in the play are also perfectly orchestrated, building up the suspense and tragedy that is unfolding in the house.

This play is definitely one that is rather thought-provoking. It may be a work critiquing the place of women in society today but similarly one could relate it to a critique about power and authority and how people are largely resistant to change and even grow to perpetuate such dominance, repression and authority over time. 

W!LD RICE's The House of Bernarda Alba runs from 12 March to 29 March 2014 at the Drama Centre Theatre.

Kumar: One Night Only!

Kumar comes to NUS!

Kumar, the widely acclaimed comedian is coming to NUS Utown on the 8th March (today)! The performance will start at 7pm and ends at 10pm at UT Auditorium 2. 
Kumar will be performing for 30minutes at 8pm! 

Yale-NUS's very first Improv-Club and other local guest performers will be performing as well.

Tickets are priced at $5 each. 

From what I heard, tickets have all been sold out but some residential colleges might have a few leftover tickets still, so do grab them before they are all gone!

This event is organized by Yale-NUS College. 
I'm sure this is going to be a blast!

The Sound of Music Audition (Singapore)

Base Entertainment will be conducting auditions for The Sound of Music musical from 7th to 9th March 2014.

Do register if you are interested and fulfill the criteria.

Registration link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AUfwJQXyVf6b0or1bstUmP_TS4zUSi22KEPOLaiOws8/viewform


*Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Base Entertainment.

Fat Pig

"How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love?"
Tom played by Gavin Yap faces this very question when he falls for plus-sized Helen.

I am glad that I caught the show on Tuesday, 25th February. It was a sold-out show that night!

(Credits: Pangdemonium)

This is definitely a refreshing play to watch. It is hilarious yet thought-provoking. From the very name of the play, it centers around how we, culturally treat, overweight people. However, it is definitely more than that. It touches on issues such as self-esteem, prejudice, discrimination and even how we often put labels to things just to make oneself feel better. The way the play ended might show that the characters learn nothing, but as audience you definitely get more questions than answers. This is definitely something I love about Pangdemonium, their productions always bring forth pertinent issues that we deliberately try to avoid openly discussing about for various reasons into the spotlight.

The play has rather unfamiliar cast members. Except for Gavin Yap who plays Tom, I have never seen the other cast members before. Nevertheless, they are pretty impressive. Frances Lee plays the lead role Helen in her debut theatre production with Pangdemonium. She might be new and a little nervous but she really brings out the realness and vulnerability of the character she plays. Elizabeth Lazan pulls off a convincing role as Jeannie, who is obsessed with Tom and constantly vents her woman's fury on him. Though her scenes are short, this is definitely not an easy role to play and I personally think she acts Jeannie to perfection. Carter, played by Zachary Ibrahim, might be a really mean guy but he also has one of the wisest line in the entire play "Do what you want. If you like this girl, then don't listen to a goddamn word anybody says.". 

Besides the acting, I am really impressed by Pangdemonium's usage of space. The Singapore Repertory Theatre's stage is definitely small and one might be led to believe that it limits how the play is going to be staged. However, the way Pangdemonium creates the various scenes from the fastfood restaurant to the office, bedroom, restaurant or beach with great details shows how a well-staged show can be done with such great planning. The way the play transitions from one scene to another is also beautiful and engages the audience at the same time. 

Undoubtedly a funny play, it does make one feel bad for laughing.

This Fat Pig is definitely worth catching!
Fat Pig runs from 13 February 2014 to 2 March 2014 at the DBS Arts Centre. Do get your tickets before they run out!

Coming Soon: Grease

This is definitely one of the musicals that I look forward to watch this year.
With memorable songs like Summer Nights, Hopelessly Devoted To You and You're The One That I Want from the classic movie, who can resist not watching this musical.

After having heard so much about the musical success in Australia from my friends, I was really excited to know that the Australian cast of Grease is coming to Singapore! (like finally!)

Grease runs from 25 April 2014 - 11 May 2014 at Marina Bay Sands.
It's a pretty short run here in Singapore so do grab your tickets from Sistic to avoid disappointment!

Grease Is The Word!

LightSeeker

Multi-million dollar musical - LightSeeker- is the third original resident show at Resorts World Sentosa.

This is a fantasy musical filled with imps, warriors and forest tribes.

LightSeeker tells the fantasy story where "The Light" nourishes all life. The emperor (played by Lim Kay Siu) wants all the light in this realm. The General (played by Stuart Boother) is thus tasked with seeking this precious energy for his emperor. Assisted by an evil sorceress, Usha (played by Vivienne Carlyle), this search led them to Nova (played by Sarah Brown), a mysterious girl with the ability to create "The Light". The General captures Nova and forces her to conjure up "The Light" only to realise that not only is he incapable of controlling her, her very presence threatens the only world he has ever known. Hence the General has to make the ultimate choice - be secure in the darkness he knows, or embrace the promise of a new and better world within the light.
be secure in the darkness he knows, or take a leap of faith and embrace the promise of a new

Honestly speaking, I was not exactly impressed by this musical. The story is melodramatic and many dialogues are obviously cliched. I personally find the first act rather draggy and after some time it got boring. The songs, composed by Dick Lee, were acceptable but not really memorable. Also, there seems to be something lacking in the actors' vocals that fail to truly connect with the audience. I was not emotionally moved at the end of the show. Nevertheless, the acrobatic stunts are no doubt beautiful and amazing. This is a very colourful musical which believe appeals to kids a lot. They even have this LED wall that features 281 trillion colour variations.

For such a costly production, I feel that there is definitely still a lot of room for improvement and can be even better.

If you are bored and want something to do during the weekend, you can consider bringing your family to watch LightSeeker.

LightSeeker runs from 28 November 2013 to 23 March 2014. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday shows are at 8pm. Saturday and Sunday shows are at 3pm and 8pm. Tickets are priced from $48 to $148. You can check out Sistic and RWS's page for more details.