I'm sorry I have not been updating, so now I am.

Mainly for Carol's benefit I will talk about the two local shows I've been to since I got back. I saw Wong Kar Wai Dreams and Bulan Madu.

Wong Kar Wai Dreams was of the big, splashy variety, held in the national drama centre and all that. I usually am a little biased towards plays watched in the theatre studio or little spaces such as the substation - with free seating and cheaper tickets. I tend to think those plays are a little bit more intimate and real and more accessible to everyone else, but that's just my opinion. I didn't really like WKWDreams. It had a lesbian subtext that was painfully obvious from the beginning and a bit contrived (like having a lesbian storyline just for the sake of having one). The wayang kulit style of scenes from the movies was very beautiful, though. Other than that, I expected so much more from a play bearing WKW's name.

Bulan Madu was great. The second play about Kampong Wa'Hassan dragged a little but the first play about polygamy was very heartrending. The acting was perfect I felt, and I was impressed that the actress who played the second wife was reprising this role after ten years. I saw alfian nodding several times during the play while they delivered their lines, and I must confess I watched him quite a bit more than I should have (I should have been paying attention to the stage instead). Well, for one, he sat so near to the back wall which was where the subtitles were being flashed that I couldn't help but see him every time I had to read the subtitles. And for another, I just liked watching the expressions on his face. Expressions of someone watching his own script be played out in front of him, and nod every time he think it's been perfectly transferred on to the stage. Don't ask me why it intrigues me .. maybe because a part of my intrinsically longs to feel the same thing one day. To know every line by heart, and to almost mouth it along with the actors while watching the play.

Going to Bulan Madu made me re-examine my relationship with theatre. I looked around at the audience and realized my brother and I were two of the very, very few chinese faces. Later on, when one of the actors prompted the audience as to which areas of Singapore they were from, and if any of them had stayed in Kampongs, I realized there was a great variety - Bukit batok, Sembawang, Yishun, Jurong, Johor .. Yes, some of them were old enough to have had a Kampong. Bulan Madu was not just romanticizing malay culture - it was real, recognizable and true. Something even the older people could relate to. And even though I am completely almost unfamiliar with many of the inside jokes, slangs and idiosyncrasies of the malay culture, I, too could feel some sort of connection to this play. I felt this theatre had almost succeeded in breaking the hierachies so present in theatre audiences ... usually the upper or middle class going for plays, only. My only regret was that there were not enough chinese Singaporeans interested in this production (but perhaps they had gone the night before?).

I met an old friend last night at the door, who recognized me first. It was really good to have met her because I feel there are so many parts of myself I have forgotten, and talking to her helped me remember, a little.

+ posted by M @ 2:06 PM