History gets a voice

TOMORROW SINGAPOREANS start their celebrations of the 50th anniversary of their independence in the run-up to Sunday’s National Day parade, which promises to be the largest ever held.
Indeed all this year, SG50 logos and national flags are being sported on every road and apartment building and local artists have received more support to create new work to celebrate this auspicious occasion than ever before.
Last month Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay commissioned “Upstage”, a work by Toy Factory Productions’ artistic director Goh Boon Tek, with a subtitle that reads “contemplating 50 years of Singapore Mandarin Theatre”.
Thai theatregoers may recognise his name from “Prism”, a pan-Asean collaboration seen here in 2003. “Upstage”, though, was a much finer and more memorable work.
A good deal of credit is due to playwright Cheow Boon Seng, whose time and efforts in research was evident in this play. It was highly informative and the audience went home with a much greater awareness of the social, political and cultural values of Mandarin theatre in Singapore.
I was particularly interested in learning more about the contributions of Kuo Pao Kun, the late father of Singapore’s modern theatre whose many students and actors are actively working nowadays, to the development of Singaporean theatre with his Mandarin plays.
Yet despite the leisurely pace of “Upstage”, too much information was given and by the time we realised that Mandarin theatre is now in decline, and watched tears running down the face of veteran actress Jalyn Han, it was a little too late.
The play was deftly structured with three thespians – Han and her younger counterparts Yeo Kok Siew and Jodi Chan – working under the supervision of a director, performed by Lim Ngian Tiong, on selected scripts of Mandarin plays from the five decades of history. These included Shi Ke Kang’s “The Tune of Life” (1966), Lin Chen’s “The Second Flee” (1973), Kuo’s “The Little White Sailing Boat” (1982) and “Lao Jiu” (1990). In a sleekly designed set that combined tradition and modernity and used only simple yet practical costumes and masks, these re-creations of plays were accompanied by production photos as well as video interviews with relevant artists and scholars.
Some may point out that it’s not very difficult to document a short history and they have a point. But I still don’t know which library to visit or which government agency to call if I want to research modern Thai theatre from three decades ago. The importance of archiving is another lesson the audience learned from this play. Moreover, many scholars have credited the use of English as the first language as one of the reasons why Singapore has developed rapidly to become a megapower today, not only in Asia but the world.
Now, though, that the “dragon” is rising and an increasing number of people are speaking Mandarin, one has to wonder whether this policy will soon change.
 MURAKAMI’S KAFKA
 n Yukio Ninakawa’s “Kafka on the Shore”, Frank Galati’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel, will be at the Esplanade Theatre from October 30 to November 1. It’s in Japanese with English surtitles.
n Tickets start at S$48 (students receive a discount). For details, check www.Sistic.com.sg or www.Esplanade.com.