Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Imperfect Past Makes Present Tense

Watched Wildrice's JBJ play on Saturday with my dad. While it was not as flawed as the Straits Times made it out to be, it was definitely uneven and a little disjointed. Act 1 and Act 2 felt like 2 separate plays, each successful but when put together...it just seemed strange. It started as a light-hearted satire, almost like a romp. It ended as a melancholic, sober drama without much sign of the earlier half's breeziness. The distinct drop in tone was a little jarring.

BUT I still liked it. :)

1) for the quote "imperfect past makes present tense". nice line and I see on technorati that many other singaporeans thought so. ha. eleanor wong's got good lines as ever!

2) for the police man scene - easily rodney o's 2nd best scene. quite good, considering he was pretty weak in the first act.

3) for the amazing amazing Pam Oei - I swear the girl can really out-act any one. Every persona switch she did was spot on, pitch perfect and funny. Anything she acts in is just gold i bet. :)

4) for the pretty intense and well-acted lunch scene between "clara tang" - the up and coming civil servant - and the idealistic journalist she can never leave behind. the undercurrent of tension in that scene - sexual, political and otherwise! - was pretty well-done.

5) the strange ending - I don't fully understand it but there was something quite poetic about watching "clara" - the new cynical Singapore - drop her guardedness, her sadness and just dance in grim abandon with the ghost of an idealistic Singapore - "david" - under the momentary flare of national day fireworks. the scene had a little magic i think. :)

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