A very special playmates date on this night with H gallantly giving up his ticket for the play so V could join us girls for Wild Rice's first show of the year, Public Enemy. After shamelessly taking selfies with S's selfie pole in front of the posters, we trooped into the theatre for the 1 hour 45 minutes long show (no intermission).
The play is about a doctor who discovers that the water supply of his city is contaminated with life-threatening bacteria and he wants to publicise the information as he believes it is the right thing to do. But as the city is being marketed as a resort spa paradise, his discovery had implications that would severely impact the economy of the city and livelihoods of the people. In no time at all, he found himself becoming the public enemy of the people he had intended to protect, even getting flak from some of his family members and friends.
Public Enemy
The pace of the show was a little slow in the beginning as the premise was being set. I thought things got interesting when the theatre 'transformed' into an auditorium as the different actors addressed the audience like we were concerned citizens who had specially gathered for the press conference. In his impassioned speech, Dr. Chee (Ivan Heng) made some politically-incorrect observations about society that were funny possibly because they were a little too close to the truth for comfort. And so nervous laughs ensued when he made his angry proclamations.
After the play ended, we talked about hidden political references. The most obvious one perhaps was that Dr. Thomas Chee and his most loyal friend Ravi alluded to stigmatised opposition politicians Chee Soon Juan and M, Ravi.
I must confess that initially as the characters were introduced on stage, I thought it was contrived that the producers made a deliberate effort to cast a Malay actor, an Indian actor and an Eurasian actor as second leads (much like a Michael Chiang play). But upon reflection, I have realised that it was done so that the main ethnicities found in Singapore are represented in the make-believe society. Or...I could just be over-thinking and over-analysing the entire situation. Ha.
It was not a bad way to spend an evening with my dearest friends. And because of the play, the word 'majority' now takes on a whole new meaning for us.
Public Enemy
Event Date: Thu, 9 - Sat, 25 Apr 2015; Tue - Sat: 8pm; Sat & Sun: 3pm
Venue: Victoria Theatre
No comments:
Post a Comment