Inkpot Review: Emily of Emerald Hill by W!ld Rice
(Wo)Man in a Dress
on a Hill
Ladies and gentlemen, I have been deflowered. Until
the 29th, I was one of the very few people in this
country - dammit, this peninsula - to be an Emily
virgin. Obviously, this was inappropriate and
unsustainable behaviour for someone residing longterm in Singapore - rather akin to living in Bangkok
without trying a massage - so I figured I'd better nip
down to Raffles Hotel and figure out what keeps you
all coming back for more. Maybe it's the free kueh
doled out at the interval, maybe it's the - oh, my
word, how amusing! - sight of a bloke in a dress, or
just maybe, it could be to see a world-class
performance from Singapore's own Ivan Heng.
Page 1 of 2
Production: Emily of Emerald Hill
Company: W!ld Rice
Reviewer: Matthew Lyon
Date: 29 Aug 2001
Time: 8.00pm
Place: Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Actually, Heng's excellence was so all-round that it's
hard to get specific - you might as well just take a
random handful of pages from your dictionary and
give him all the complimentary adjectives. Whatever
the script required of him, he gave; and whatever the
audience required, he gave even harder. A
particularly successful departure from the original
text saw Heng interacting with audience members:
bullying latecomers, teaching needlework to those
unlucky enough to sit at the front, and getting everyone in on the act to sing
happy birthday or to sell him fish. Heng's wit, timing and his absolute sureness of
his character made these diversions highly enjoyable and much more successful
than fellow W!ld Ricer, Chowee Leow's somewhat diffident forays into the
audience in April's An Occasional Orchid - even though interaction was originally
written into this latter, but tacked on as an afterthought to Emily.
Importantly, the interaction also hastened along the pace of the play, which, on a
cold reading, can get bogged down by the weight of its exposition. Director
Krishen Jit's production was never in danger of feeling overlong - despite the
nearly three hours of stage time it swallowed up - and another reason for this was
the decision for Heng to act out the roles of the people Emily meets or speaks
about.
Strangely, Heng was at his least convincing when he stepped out of Emily's
character to impersonate the various men she knew. But even more strangely, this
lack of authenticity was perfect in itself. Whereas Heng may not have acted truly
like a man in these parts, he certainly acted like a woman acting like a man. And if
you consider that he was actually a man acting like a woman acting like a man,
then he did a rather good job altogether. It made me think of my Gran, who, every
time she wanted to recount something my brother had said, put on a ridiculously
deep and gruff voice, even though my brother was considerably better spoken
http://www.inkpotreviews.com/2001reviews/0829,emil,ml.xml
"Heng's excellence
was so all-round
that it's hard to
get specific - you
might as well just
take a random
handful of pages
from your
dictionary and
give him all the
complimentary
adjectives."
23/10/2009
Inkpot Review: Emily of Emerald Hill by W!ld Rice
Page 2 of 2
than she. Presumably, to her ears, it sounded authentic, whereas to mine, it
sounded silly - and Heng captured that silliness perfectly.
Having said that, there were occasions where it seemed unnecessary for Emily to
"act out" her associates' parts. It got in the way sometimes, especially at the start,
and especially where impersonation was used without direct speech. But then,
what can you do? If you're gonna do one, you gotta do 'em all, I suppose; and the
performance as a whole was stronger, and even deeper, for having this metaperformative aspect.
But with all this light-heartedness going on and the audience lapping it up, it was
always going to be difficult to bring everything down again and capture the pathos
of a play that has, after all, frequently been described as a tearjerker. This
difficulty was seen towards the end of the first act, where Emily flies to England to
prevent her son, Richard from throwing away a potential career in law to pursue
his dream of teaching horse-riding. This scene of fierce confrontation was played
too placidly. Yes, Emily is a victim of circumstance, yes she must often use
softness to make her way in the world, but where was the strength that allowed
her to control her family and the force of will that drove her son to suicide?
Instead, she wheedled and reasoned, coaxing Richard to return to his studies
rather than compelling him with her anger and frustration. She was far too
rational, and I couldn't help noticing, when the scene was over and Emily had
"flown back" to Singapore, that her hair was still impeccable. Fortunately, these
were aspects of her character that Heng managed to assimilate by the end of the
play, and it was just their absence in this one key scene that was disappointing.
On the other hand, some first-time ang moh is not going to write the definitive
review of this production (excellent, versatile set, by the way), so if you want a
more qualified voice, I'd better get one for you: coming out of the theatre, my
Peranakan friend said that he had just seen his mother onstage. What higher
praise?
Productions are rated out of 5, based on practitioner's vision / reviewer's response:
5 = transcendent / rapturous; 4 = crystal / appreciative; 3 = transmitted / thoughtful; 2 = vague / unsatisfied; 1 = uncommunicated / mystified.
http://www.inkpotreviews.com/2001reviews/0829,emil,ml.xml
23/10/2009