Singaporean theater group charms with simple appeal<\/p>\n
By Yenni Kwok<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Theatre Practice proved that simplicity
\ncharms and does not kill a performance.<\/p>\n
This Singaporean theater company staged two monolog plays at
\nTaman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta, last Sunday as part of
\nTeater Koma's Pastojak 1997 (Jakarta Performing Arts Market
\n1997). They were directed by the Lion City's leading stage
\ndirector, Kuo Pao-kun.<\/p>\n
My Mother's Chest and The Coffin Is Too Big For the Hole
\npresented chapters from the lives of ordinary people. There were
\nno elaborate costumes, no fancy sets. Nothing was excessive on
\nstage.<\/p>\n
Behind the modest wrapping, they offered up the
\nrichness of symbolism and imagination.<\/p>\n
My Mother's Chest by Zhu Cai-zhen is a heart-wrenching journey
\nthrough a woman's bitter past, which is tragically tangled up
\nwith her stepmother's.<\/p>\n
The woman (Nora Anny Samosir) returns to her family's old
\nhouse after her stepmother's death, and goes through mementoes
\nkept in a wooden chest.<\/p>\n
Each item elicits its own painful memory. Her stepmother hates
\nher as the daughter of the illegitimate child from her husband's
\naffair with a cabaret singer. Unable to give birth to a child,
\nthe stepmother adopted a son, who grew up to be a no-good.<\/p>\n
Their rivalry made her try to rebel in any way possible. The
\nmore the stepmother resisted, the more she pushed. She married a
\nman she loved, but the decision was also due to her stepmother's
\nobjections. When the marriage ended prematurely, the woman found
\nherself back with her stepmother.<\/p>\n
Translated from Chinese into English, the monolog accomplished
\nthe amazing feat of telling such a complicated story in only an
\nhour. Staged in a regular drama performance, it might have taken
\nmore than a couple of hours.<\/p>\n
It was heavy with emotion, bouncing back and forth from humor
\nto anguish. The thirty-something Samosir, a Batak Singaporean,
\ncould shed tears at one point, her voice trembling. A moment
\nlater she was laughing her heart out.<\/p>\n
The audience initially sympathized with the main character, as
\nthe stepmother fit into the wicked genre of folktales. A twist
\nat the end of the tale, when the woman puts on her stepmother's
\nburial dress and assumes her character, turned the negative
\nperception around.<\/p>\n
She reveals that she contracted a disease from her unfaithful
\nhusband, and this had left her infertile.<\/p>\n
Zhu said My Mother's Chest was inspired by the stories of her
\nrelatives.<\/p>\n
\"When I was small, my family seemed to have a lot of secrets.
\nI knew things because I was eavesdropping. They never told me
\nanything,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She pieced these together in the play. \"I just imagined most
\nof the time. I traced and tried to find the missing link and put
\nthem together, just like a jigsaw puzzle,\" said the 48-year-old.<\/p>\n
Yet the monolog is more than just a family curiosity piece, as
\nit confronts Chinese traditions and women's issues.<\/p>\n
There is a reference to how the father forced his wife to
\nsleep with him on their wedding night, which Zhu said was her
\nstatement on marital rape.<\/p>\n
Indeed, My Mother's Chest is a critical, if not cynical, view
\nof Chinese traditions and how they treat women. The end mocked
\nthese traditions.<\/p>\n
A red curtain dropped, adorned with Chinese characters of
\n\"double happiness\", a common symbol of wedding. The stepmother
\nstood behind it in the darkness, wearing her burial dress.<\/p>\n
The Coffin Is Too Big For the Hole was a perfect choice after
\nMy Mother's Chest, a light-hearted comic monolog to follow a
\ntragedy.<\/p>\n
Kuo Pao-kun's piece recounts a man's embarrassing but humorous
\ntale of misadventure at his grandfather's funeral. As the eldest
\ngrandson, the man (Lim Kay Tong) is responsible for the event.<\/p>\n
Two hundred friends and relatives are in attendance. They try
\nto lower the traditional, custom-made coffin into the hole, but
\nit does not fit.<\/p>\n
The grandson quickly rushes to the funeral director, asking
\nfor a bigger plot. The request is rejected due to the strict rule
\nthat one dead man means one fixed-size plot.<\/p>\n
The devoted grandson later brings the issue to the officer in
\ncharge. After fierce arguments, including the rejoinder \"sympathy
\nand humanity cannot override the state policy\", they finally
\nallow the grandson his request. But the coffin isn't buried
\nnorth-south like the others, but east-west.<\/p>\n
The audience was lucky to enjoy the best of Lim. The 43-year-
\nold actor was outstanding in his rapid, motor-mouthed soliloquys.
\nHe was the dutiful and desperate grandson, but he also
\npersonified the bewildered funeral man and officer.<\/p>\n
The Coffin's big message was revealed in Lim's final line.
\nPondering about the barely distinguishable burial plots, he asked
\nhimself: \"With all of them in the same shapes, will my son,
\ndaughter, grandson and granddaughter be able to find me and
\nrecognize me?\"<\/p>\n
Conflicting interests in the play pointed up clashes between
\nmodernity and tradition, authority and individuals.<\/p>\n
\"The modernity has pushed away the individuality,\" Lim told
\nThe Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said his play's most salient example of this was that the
\ntraditional coffin, which was custom made, was rejected. The plot
\ncould only accommodate mass-produced, modern coffins.<\/p>\n
Some might claim that The Coffin, Kuo's first English-language
\nscript, was about antibureaucracy. Kuo insisted he had no
\npolitical axe to grind.<\/p>\n
\"I want to start asking what we should do with traditions,\"
\nsaid the 58-year-old playwright-director. \"Is
\ntradition too big or too clumsy? Is the contemporary life too
\nsmall or too quick?\"<\/p>\n
Established in October in 1986 by Kuo, The Theatre Practice
\nperforms in both Chinese and English. Besides staging regular
\nperformances, this professional theater company is also active in
\npromoting theater arts to children and youngsters.<\/p>\n
The monologues, while based on Chinese
\nculture and traditions, clearly had a universal and cross-
\ncultural appeal. Kuo and his troupe once performed My Mother's
\nChest in Sabah, Malaysia, to a good response. The Coffin has been
\nperformed by local groups in Bali and Malaysia, even though the
\ndominant cultures in these areas do not bury their dead.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that is because most people could relate to these
\nplays. After all, traditions and how we treat them are everyday
\nhuman issues.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/singaporean-theater-group-charms-with-simple-appeal-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}