Drama Night 08

This year's drama night is kinda different compared to the previous years. The drama club had the honour of staging their play at the Singapore Repertory Theatre instead of Lecture Theatre 2 or 4. The show itself is splitted into two major plays and two minor acts. Nothing much to talk about the minor ones and I'll comment instead on the major two. First one is "Eunuch" (a longer title actually but lazy to type out) and second one "Walls". Generally, I would say that the actors were very eloquent and did very well in acting out their characters. The acting was top notch. and professional. The show has some returning veteran ones like Xiaoyan and Matilda and they certainly retained their charm. But the scripts of the plays did raised some eyebrows.

The script for "Eunuch" is written by a director codenamed "Scatterbrains" (to protect the identity..hahaha), who happens also to be the slacker teacher of one of my important subjects. Oh my, all I have got to say is that it is one of the most bizarre moments I have sat through. It was as though I'm looking through the glass of some fifth dimension. I literally had "space dementia" watching the play and the plot is even more weird than Muse's songs. There is an unorthodox combination of history and modern day dressing and the plot sequence jumps everywhere. A high emphasis was placed on the male genitals, specifically the various ways of mutilating it including frying it, stringing it high and nannies massaging and crushing the young baby balls in the name of pleasure. On stage too was a male who shamelessly strip and dress on stage. I really don't get the monologues as they sounded like what Scatterbrains used to teach for the past two years. There were also innocent bespectacled young girls uttering "penis" and munching on something suggestively. I wonder how their parents would have reacted watching the show. If the aim is to induce some sensuality, it's just being placed across crudely. There is nothing wrong in placing elements of sexuality in theatre plays as they are pretty common in many of them. In fact, sexuality is the lifeblood of English Literature. I just thought that Scatterbrains would at least write a script that put those themes across much more gracefully in such a way that the audience would admire its artistic beauty. I think all the audience are just left dazed after watching "Eunuch". Even Scatterbrains admitted that he got confused in the process of explaining the plot to his friends. Then again, that's what happened for the past two years when he is asked to explain his eccentric actions and behaviour.

"Walls" is something which many of the audience could relate to easily since it is based very closely to our emotions. But the script looked like a combination of Prison Break and some "father rape daughter" story from the tabloid New Paper. And yes, for some reason or so, it seems that there is some form of lesbianic tendency between the two main characters. I felt that the plot just stops too abruptly at some intervals and there is a potential for it to expand further. For instance, the director can try to draw some inspiration from Ken Kesey's book "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" since it provides some interesting ideas regarding psychoanalysis and the asylum. Apart from the script, the actresses in "Walls" did superbly in their professional portrayal of their characters.

Anyways, I'm just curious also on the reaction of the conservative college principal after watching the play..haha. In any case, I think our batch's "Othello" is possibly the best one that ever graced through the eyes of a college that don't seem to give any attention about the arts. The events that transpired especially last year showed that the the tiny little Literature department is a force to be reckoned with as compared to the legions that are found in the Maths and Science cohort.