We have Zouk, and it's F-f-funky!When an adult sets out to try and connect with the youth, without doing the proper legwork, what you get is the sad vision of someone on the fringes of a exclusive culture, trying desperately to peer in.
Survivor Singapore - touted as a must see for any Singaporean student. It decided to flog a dead horse by repeatedly putting across the message that the singaporean school system gave students no voice and no creative space. Which was all well and good and the play ambled on with strange bursts of Malay and Tamil woven into the english school landscape. There were the typical stereotypes, the malay boy was a Mat who could not pronounce some words, the chinese girl was an ah lian princess and the Indian had a moustache and a heavy accent. This employment of stereotypes served no higher illuminative purpose [ perhaps it was to "Show" that these are typical sporean students but that was not very well done] and instead lent bad form to the play.
There was also the employment of comdienne/Drag queen Kumar with his cheap racial shots and slapstick humour in the middle of the play, breaking the flow and in the end, undermining the slightly more serious message of the play which was (ostensibly) the suppression the Singaporean suffers. How the Singaporean survives, or doesn't survive, as shown by the children being handed over to the ISD.
All in all, it was saved by the great offbeat direction of Natalie (something) except one part where I could not understand the significance of the ball throwing. Something I'm still trying to fathom 2 days later. This play has already begun to fade in my mind especially due to the sour taste their "question and answer" session left in my mouth. Honest questions shot down with defensive, angry answers coupled with alot of "textbook answering" Not very nice, and has put me off The Necessary Stage Productions for a long long time.
http://202.172.226.186/test3/internetcontent/ejub300107/doc/Survivor.pdfAll in all, please, take my word for granted.
Don't watch this play.5:24 pm;can you keep a secret?
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