Back in the late nineties, when I was teaching at TKGS, I saw a play for an assembly done by a couple of performers from The Necessary Stage that made quite an impact on me. It focussed on the problem of anorexia, managing to do so in a refreshingly less than preachy manner. The simplicity of the staging, making something quite intimate work in a big hall from an unforgiving stage (as in all schools here) made me realise that it was possible to do good work in that kind of arena - though I can't honestly say I've achieved anything worthwhile myself in such circumstances since that time. At the time I took it for granted that the script was some sort of collaborative, work-shopped venture, though the strength of the piece did suggest a gifted, guiding intelligence.
Fast forward to last week in KL with me reading one of the books I picked up on our last visit to the library. I wasn't too sure of whether I really wanted to dip into Verena Tay's selected plays In The Company Of Women. I'd not really heard of her before and the scripts at first glance looked a touch amateurish - not because of the quality of the writing, simply due to the font used by the publisher. But I did take the book, thinking it might trigger some ideas for future work with ACSIS. And there it was, the next to last of the plays, Mirror Mirror, the play from the assembly. Ms Tay might not be a big name in theatre here but she's a fine writer and there's a lot more in the collection worth reading - and putting on stage. She has a sure touch with the rhythms of Singaporean English and a grasp of the importance of the small things that give weight to our lives. That sounds a touch patronising, but it's not meant to be. I'm just envious.
However, I think it's true to say that these feel like scripts rather than plays. Not that I consider plays better, simply that this is obviously the work of someone who works in theatre, rather than writes for theatre, and the step of staging the work needs to be carried out in reality or the reader's imagination to achieve something finished.
The same is true of the rather better known Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III which I referred to in this blog a little while ago, having borrowed it from the library at the same time as In The Company Of Women. Actually I got the title wrong in my earlier reference, using the title of the movie instead. Bennett explains the re-titling in an excellent introduction to his play in which he draws considerable attention to the genesis of the play, emphasising the sense in which this is a kind of working script, open to alteration to enable it to work in the theatre. And that really is the test of a good play, whatever its subject matter: does it work in front of an audience?
On quite a different topic, Sheela's comment on my National Day ramblings on Nations shows a wise head on young shoulders. 'Overdrive' is spot on, and, sadly, 'gnawing anxiety'. The thing I undilutedly, unironically admire the government here for is their unequivocal overdriven insistence on the importance of racial harmony. If Singapore being a nation helps secure that I'll wrap myself in the flag gladly. Better nations than tribes, say I.
1 comment:
You taught at TKGS in the late 90s? My mother taught there in the late 60s. It's heartening to know that you're really quite a young person. Heh-heh.
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