《郑和的后代》(Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral)

Hrmm...I don't know if I'm "dull" or the production too contemporary (abstract), but I spent the most part of the show wondering why it was called "Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral". To me, it was more of an interpretation of how Zheng He actually felt being a eunuch (or other eunuchs at that) with a description of the various methods of castration. I've not read the text before, but if it was meant to relate to other social issues, or tell some other story, I didn't see it. There were some parts that didn't seem they were portrayed appropriately, somehow casting a negative light on Zheng He, and at some points like a 闹剧, e.g. the part on the years of the 7 times Zheng He 下西洋. It failed to engage. The set was pretty impressive though, simple as it looked, and the opening "sea roar" was anticipatory.
Ah well, I went in not knowing what to expect, and came out feeling it was not what I expected (I know, what I just said doesn't make sense).
I think this is my first KPK production. Wonder if the rest are as "cheem". Think not many can appreciate, judging from the "crowd" we saw tonight.
Catch no ball (no pun intended).

Ok, I shan't spend too much time on this. Now to move on to figuring out my new phone.

Love Cuts 割爱

I try to support local movies when they are screened and Love Cuts was something I caught with my mum recently...Okay, I didn't actually pay for the ticket as she had some GV movie vouchers, so this seemed like a safe choice, as there weren't many choices of movies that were worth watching, and would suit my mum. The poster had originally incited some controversy from the public previously, but given the context, it was passed.

The movie stars our very own Zoe Tay (郑惠玉) and Hong Kong actor Kenny Ho (何家劲). The story is of how Sissy (Zoe Tay), a seamstress, and her family deal with 4th-stage breast cancer. She never gives up hope and tries the various treatments available like chemo and radiation, whatever that gives her a glimpse of hope. Something Sissy says is very true. This is the gist as I can't remember the exact words - “生病的人要比别人（家人）更坚强因为他们也（更）需要安慰。因为他们不知道该怎么做也不知道能做什么，他们也不能够做什么”。

She meets a young model, Kristy, who comes by her shop and who happens to be in the early stages of breast cancer. She tries to convince the model to go for mastectomy (who doesn't know Sissy also has breast cancer). It is only later that Kristy visits Sissy again that she finds out Sissy's condition, and it suddenly dawns on her the need to make the decision, I believe, when she asks if Sissy went for mastectomy. The only reply that Sissy could give was that "没得割了。癌细胞已经扩散到别的地方了。" because she discovered it too late.

It's not your regular movie with all the glitz and drama, just a simple portrayal of what goes on in real life (pretty mundane actually), but it was touching nonetheless, testament with the sniffing going on (including myself) during the show.

Monologues

What does it take for someone to play a monologue? A recent review by a friend prompted me to think about this.

Depending on the book, it seems like a display of schizophrenia on stage. How do you appear convincing switching between roles? It's difficult to get into character for each since you have to be mindful about switching roles during the act. So the actor will need a certain amount of tenacity.

I can't help but think of Emily of Emerald Hill, a rather well-known local monologue play. Margaret Chan did a pretty good job (I've not seen others, but will catch the Ivan Heng's portrayal that's showing next year). I realised that it was essentially playing the same character, except at different stages of Emily's life. The audience needs to "transport" themselves along with the character. So does this makes it easier? A single character portrayal?

I believe the book plays a part too. You need a defining characteristic of each persona, which will need to be drawn from the book. So the actor will need to pick out that defining characteristic to emphasize, and use it to his/her advantage so that the audience can tell when the actor switches.

Threading

This is a frivolous post.

I've been (trying to) "pamper" myself these days, buying a new phone, feasting (this might not be a good thing though), and doing some girly stuff.

While waiting for a space at Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery today, I decided to try out Browhaus (for the first time) next door and tried threading for the first time ever. It's actually the traditional way of eyebrow shaping, by using (you've guessed it) thread. Well, I must say it takes skill and the "pain" is about the same as if I did "modern tweezing", which they offered too. Wasn't too bad an experience.

Loewen Gardens Farmers' Market

I recently discovered that there's a farmers' market in Singapore! Interesting. Something like what we see overseas where people come to display their own produce, and in Singapore? Things like food and stuff.

It's held twice monthly and organised by The Pantry Cookery School, near Dempsey. Here's more info.

I should pop by one day to see what they have.

Capriccio Plays Tango

As I was saying earlier, I happened to be at the Esplanade when my friend, Tze, with one of his affiliations, Capriccio, was performing at the concourse.
So I made a recording on my FlipVideo device of one of the pieces they played called "Oblivion".

The piano is played by Tze, accordion by MoMo and violin by Jensen.

Tze is an acquaintance whom I met at Songcraft and one of the few people I personally know who's really talented at the piano (and has worked professionally as a musician, e.g. film scoring), especially when he doesn't have formal training, and is a self-taught pianist. He does improvisation-style stuff but compose on his own too, which I've heard before when he did a solo performance at the The Arts House, and on other occasions (honestly, I prefer his solos). Besides Capriccio, he has a few other affiliations.

I'm always amazed at people who can pursue their music when they have had no formal training, especially with instruments like piano, violin, etc. They usually go by ear and would have started off without knowing how to read the "bean sprout" notes.
*envious*

Oh, during the last piece they performed for the set, 2 couples actually started dancing!

Poop

How do you deal with death? That's what Poop attempted to address, or rather, how people deal with it. It was a rather moving play (I cried, and many others too), thanks to the good cast and rather 'close-to-heart' story...not that I've experienced the same plot, but it's such a reality we deal with - death. I think that's one of the reason why it drew people's hearts, this whole relation with the "common" or "down-to-earth" (for want of a better phrase). Even the slight humour style is something so "local" (although some issues have been over-used by various productions).
Technically, the 'special effects' were pretty good, using black as a cover for the many "floating" objects here and there, and the play of props and lighting and positioning to create the 'spaces' as well as the "adult-child" ratio even though the cast were adults.
The shadow play portion was quite interesting to be included and it was like Emily's battle with cancer.

Now to the story.

Written by Chong Tze Chien, staged by The Finger Players, what seemed like a family dealt with many tragedies, Poop tells of how the mother, the wife and daughter (Emily) deals with the suicide of a man. As if fate has no sympathy, the daughter is struck with cancer, which makes the family having to deal with death again. Can one really ever know how to deal with it?

To me, there seems to be a contrast between a sudden death, i.e. the suicide, and a slow death, where the family could "prepare" for death. The reactions are different as in the former; there is the lingering "ghost" with all the questions and feelings of sudden loss and 'lost' with no real closure. The latter however, is like a journey, no uncertainties, all you can do is move forward and decide the next course. And notice how it ends when Emily dies and the grandma says she can't sense her.

Then there's the part about facing the truth. The grandma, thinking it'll make the family happy, tells Emily that her father wasn't really gone, but was residing in the various objects around. Emily, as young as she was, believes her and starts imagining all the objects around her as her father. This whole "pretense" actually makes the whole family more miserable as they become trapped by the memories, the attempts to keep it alive, but never really moving on. It had to take Emily to finally raise the question of why the father committed suicide to have both the grandma and mother face/tell the truth (finally some consensus). The eventual outcome was that they all came to terms with the man's death, and I believe some closure in a way. I guess it's like poop? "Constipation" is bad for health.

Although my friend commented on the humour seeming a bit "out-of-place" in this 'serious' drama, I think it was actually quite appropriate if the mood was not intended to be "dead serious" as
1) it's meant to be in the perspective of a child (or so the synopsis says), and
2) I think it actually gives one a sense of "relief" and brings the audience to something more hopeful after death.

There are probably a lot more things to discuss, but I shall stop here.

Afternoon at the Esplanade

What was intended to be an impromptu stop to watch a play, turned into an almost full afternoon of arts experience.

Intending to catch Poop by The Finger Players after hearing good reviews from friends, I headed down to Esplanade to buy a ticket to watch the 3pm matinee show. As I was on my way up to the Theatre Studio, I heard someone playing the Chinese flute at the Esplanade library, and recalling a news feed I read on FB, I popped by to take a look since I was still early. And indeed, there was my friend playing the Chinese flute at the 'Open Stage' area. He played quite well and I liked the sound of the flute. I only had time to listen to 1 piece, and went off for my show.

After the play, I was craving for a waffle and decided to pop by Haagan Daaz for one with ice-cream. On my way, it so happened that I saw a friend doing his sound check at the Concourse and recalled that he was performing with his band, Cappricio, there. So I had my waffle and went to the concourse to wait for the performance at 5.15pm and enjoyed the rhythmic tango pieces they were playing.

Nice afternoon just going with the flow. I should do this more often.

Fruit Paradise Cafe

I've been meaning to try this place for quite a while since it opened at Raffles City but never got down to it.
So as I was hanging around Vivocity as usual looking for a place to eat before dinner, I discovered it had 1 outlet. So this was what I got, the orange & grapefruit tart. Looks pretty hor?

This is basically a dessert place serving fruit tarts (more like pies though). Nice selection of tea too. I had the yuzu pear blossom green tea. The tart wasn't too bad, and not too heavy. Next time I want to try the caramel banana.

Hey, Soul Sister by Train

Not too long ago, I happened to "discover" this band while watching CSI:NY, and the tune was pretty catchy. Train did a cameo in the show (as a band), and Patrick Monahan (the lead vocalist) played one of the victims who very nearly got killed.

I actually went to get the CD called 'Save Me, San Francisco'. There are a couple of other songs that I think aren't too bad too, like "Parachute".

Interestingly, I've discovered a few songs I liked on CSI (Vegas and NY). There are pages that lists the songs for each episode of CSI:NY here and for CSI here.