Read Jean Tay's play Boom over the last couple of days and enjoyed it very much. It's constructed in a sequence of often very short scenes, no fewer than twenty in each of the two acts, and initially I thought the scenes functioned as only very loosely connected vignettes. However, I gradually became aware of the crafty ways in which apparently disconnected characters and ideas were woven together and how the play held together as more than a series of entertaining sketches. Must say, though, that I didn't mind the initial disconnectedness at all since the strong thematic connection evoked through the notion of property development and the sense of what constituted a real home held the material together despite the seeming lack of plot.
Indeed, I'm not convinced that the story that gradually emerged really worked for me, though I'd want to reserve judgment on this until I experience the play on stage. I had an uneasy sense of elements of the melodramatic taking shape, especially in the playing out of the tragic history of the central character's family. But, who knows, in performance the material may have the necessary wallop.
What did work for me was Ms Tay's control of the language of the play, which varied wonderfully between the convincingly colloquial and genuinely poetic, and the abundant sardonic humour of the piece. It was easy to see/hear how this would work with an audience. I found myself wondering whether a staging by my drama guys might work, though I'd be loathe to have to excise some of the edgier language given our context - though it's good to see this aspect of the work didn't stop it being selected as an 'O' and 'N' Level Lit text on these shores.
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