Short and sweet, a play shalt be
From trial to plow, a mind's land deep.
Ok, I don't know what I'm writing up there, but I sure hope the playwrights know what they're doing.
The annual Short+Sweet playwriting contest organised by the Arts House is here again, and I just caught the staging of the 1st set of semi-finalists. Honestly, although I have been wanting to catch them before (though never), I have more interest this year because my friend's work is running in the semi-finals this year (he's in programme 4).
Anyway, I didn't mind watching the others and one motivation for catching programme 1 was seeing Verena Tay's name in the line-up. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in that piece. There will be 40 plays running over a period of 3 weeks, of which 10 will be selected for the gala finals. For this 1st set, most of the plays didn't do it for me, even draggy at times (imagine a 10-min play feeling draggy!...some exceeded by a few minutes).
However the last 3 plays were the most engaging for me, and I had to decide which to vote for (yah, we were given voting slips).
The Devil's Aftershave was actually a rather challenging piece to direct and act and I must merit the play on the text. It's about a man with an incredibly heightened sense of smell and how he experiences life through that. I can imagine the difficulties describing the many smells and odours, especially when repetition has to be kept to a minimum. The premise, was also something different.
Victim (受害者) is a Chinese play and the interesting part was the plot that had a few "twists", not exactly the usual extra-marital affair. An engaging piece even though I kind of half-expected the ending in the man's choice (logical), but the "journey" between was amusing. I would think it would garner more votes on that. Its merit would be on the plot.
The last play, All The Answers was quite promising as it presented the scene of when a man gets to ask 1 question at the answer room in between heaven and hell. The conversation was quite amusing, especially the part of the answer-giver, but the dead man's part was weaker. The ending, as my friend said, was a bit of a letdown.
So what did I vote for? It was a tough choice between these 3, but I picked The Devil's Aftershave on the literature/text point of view.
Judging from this set, having read my friend's work, I think his piece stands a chance to be in the finals.
"Short and sweet, a play shalt be
ReplyDeleteFrom trial to plow, a mind's land deep."
Wow, did you write that? Sounds cheem. (But it doesn't rhyme. Sorry, I had to say it!)
Yes, you're right. Some of the plays did seem kinda draggy, as if they weren't really going anywhere. I remember looking at my watch and remarking to myself: "What, it's been only 4 minutes? And yet it feels so laborious."
Yup, the last 3 were not too bad, although I particularly liked only the last 2. "The Devil's Aftershave" was a remarkable piece of writing, but from a theatrical and emotional standpoint it didn't engage me very much.
"So what did I vote for? It was a tough choice between these 3, but I picked The Devil's Aftershave on the literature/text point of view."
Well, I was quite surprised you chose it. After all, this is a play competition, and not just a literature writing competition. Yup, from a writing perspective I thought it was brilliant, but it didn't strike me as fantastic in its entirety. But to each his/her own I guess. =)
"Judging from this set, having read my friend's work, I think his piece stands a chance to be in the finals."
Let's hope so, haha!
"But it doesn't rhyme."
ReplyDeleteIt was just a poetic gesture, doesn't need to rhyme lah.
"After all, this is a play competition, and not just a literature writing competition."
Well, a play is a form of literature but I think the merit was also in that it was a "challenge" of some sort from the artistic perspective. And I would say it was a "novel" 题材.
but it didn't strike me as fantastic in its entirety
hmm...were there any that came off as fantastic?
"hmm...were there any that came off as fantastic?"
ReplyDeleteWell, to be honest...not really.
As you know, my favourite was still "All the Answers" because I really liked everything about it - the acting, the premise, the script...but I just felt that the ending wasn't as satisfying as I would have hoped for.
"Victim" (the Chinese one) was delightful, and it was really between this and "All the Answers".
"The Joy of Solitude" was very slick and well-executed, but I just didn't get the full meaning of it.
"The Benefit of Friends" started off well, and I was hoping for good things...but I felt the last one-third of the play wasn't very effective. It seemed like nothing really changed at the end of the play.
"Right & Left" felt a bit draggy and laborious for me. I didn't really enjoy it, though I was hoping for greater things from it.