Artemis
Plot Summary: I can't really tell, but I think it is about crazy people killing babies, their sub-identities and each other.
Production Summary: They're trying to be meta but they're just plastic.
Once in a while a critic finds himself in a dilemma. Should I write a truthful, but hurtful review? The consequence is not so much of hurting the feelings of the scriptwriter and the cast (they should be prepared for the inevitable humiliation or fame) but traumatizing them enough so they would forever avoid the stage, thereby depriving us of such hilarity which was the Artemis play. Honestly, I laughed the hardest for Artemis than any other plays, because meta-humor always exceeds stage humor. It's so bad it's good. I would recommend it to achieve cult status in the Hwa Chong theatre hall of fame.
It's the perfect example of bad. Bad script, bad acting, bad makeup, bad directing, bad transitions, bad blocking - and I would say bad set and props, if there were any real set and props. This is a play where we revisited the good old days of classic bad - where scriptwriters confused tension with confusion, where mad-people makeup was basically clown makeup, where all acting basically followed three rules:
1) Limber limbs are sooooo important.
2) Make your accent sound really Anglo-pretentious, then add in some Singlish accent to make it sound more local.
3) When you're sad or mad or bad, do a CPL Classic Scream*.
*This is a time-honoured tradition started by our resident Scream Queen (to misuse an industry term) CPL, who also happened to have written ("I only wrote half the script," she emphasized to me after the play) the script. I didn't know what to tell her when she asked me what I thought of it. On hindsight, I have a perfect answer: "It's very postmodern."
2 minutes into the play I started a CPL Classic Scream Counter. 5 minutes before the play ended (noting that I did not know how it would end, it was that endless) I gave up. Basically, screaming became a literary device.
I don't really want to say anything about the plot (to use a broad definition), except that it continues to perpetuate the stereotypes of psychologically disturbed people. The schizophrenic characters (to use another broad definition) have coping mechanisms more objectionable than their actual insanity. Chopping up babies? Seriously? Babies were so The Biting Point, circa 2009. Other old elements include: crazies (one of the HIC plays by the High School Drama), split identities (Last year's Artemis' play) and random retarded boy with thick eyebrows (the eyebrows are creative, but the retarded boy stereotype has haunted Hwa Chong theatre since the start of my observation).
What was good about the play? Here was where I left my review to feed my fish, do the dishes and make an appointment to cut hair, and couldn't think of an answer. I'm still thinking. I'll let you know soon. But like I said to CPL, "Good effort, you guys!"
Athena
Plot Summary: TIOBEsque case of mistaken identity and corporate ineptitude.
Production Summary: A funny, if a bit forced play, with effective transitions, great set, experienced actors and some good one-liners.
In comparison, this review of the Athena play will be very boring because there's nothing much you can talk about a good Hwa Chong production. Everything was smooth. The set was cool-looking (my only complaint is that the clouds in the windows look like smoke from a great city fire, but meh). There was clever audience interaction and cultural references. The characters have a good chemistry between them. The fratboys were hilarious, although I have the nagging suspicion that good-looking people are always funny no matter what they say. I totally second how the auntie won the best supporting actress - she was so cute, miming to wipe the invisible walls. Yes, the play was racist (the uncool Jack Tan was supposed to be Indian? Ohhhhh) but this is Hwa Chong after all.
So yeah yeah Athena really deserved Best Play. Really working on a flow, huh? I have nothing else to write.
Ares
Plot Summary: Highly implausible story of a dead body found in the ICA (I am using the exact phrasing I used to summarize Athena play last year - the similarities don't stop here)
Production Summary: A prime example of how a good production is destined to fail with a weak script.
The pity about Ares was how everything was working, except the most important bit - the story. The similarities to Athena's play last year are almost uncanny. Both stories revolved around a group of people confined to a place, faced with a central problem. Both had to find a culprit. Both had extremely manufactured tension, to the point where you want to jump up on stage and say, "Guys, why don't you just _____ ?!" If the audience are itching to provide a solution that the scriptwriter has deliberately withdrawn from her characters, there is something wrong. Characters can have their eccentricities, yes, but they must essentially be rational, which is sadly a main problem for many budding scriptwriters. If you have an unsatisfactory problem, you will have an unsatisfactory solution, and a mediocre (or even meaningless) play.
What was good? The set made a good enough impression to win Best Set, but personally I found it uncreative - the jumping numbers were basically a recycle of last year's jumping elevators numbers, in bigger scale. Also it was distracting, which was dangerous with such a laborious plot to follow. They were rather clumsy on the details - you could see certain bits of the set peeling off and official signs in childish font. The characters were adequate - I found the germaphobe the most successful (read: least painful to watch) spastic guy in the history of Hwa Chong theatre. They shouldn't have picked two bobheads out of three female characters, but that is a minor pet peeve. The pick-up lines got tiring after the third one. And the real killer (the short bobhead girl) was obvious from the start (I was only confused because I didn't know if the dead guy was really dead).
So guys, remember: start with a good script. If not, settle with Best Set. To defend my faculty loyalty, I did shout very loud for Ares last night.
Apollo
Plot Summary: Girl who wants to be grown up but realizes "adulthood" is so shallow and - oh you guys, just watch an episode of Privileged or 90210.
Production Summary: Another well-produced play. I wouldn't have expected anything less.
Let me first say Best Actress did not deserve her award except by the fact that she was the only real main actress from all 4 plays (None of the Artemis girls would win, for obvious reasons; Athena only had 2 female supporting actresses; Ares had an ensemble cast). She was incredibly wooden and when in character, she was a brown bagger. (I reserve my judgment for the real person.)
EDIT: Apollo main-actress didn't win Best Actress, the stoner hipstress did. We are sorry for the error. Anyway, stoner hipstress did kinda deserve her award, since she was funny, but I doubt it takes major acting skillz to look disinterested, deliver her one-liners and deadpan the rest of her lines. (My favourite part was her 'chill face'.)
This play was even more American TV-style than other Apollo (or should I say HP?) plays. The transition of the first scene especially: the Peranakan (the EOEH reference, btw, is in very bad taste, mainly because I've just watched EOEH staged the day before) mother said, "Really, who are you -" and it switches to the next scene - so TV! (Anyway, that transition wasn't handled very well.) Teenage struggle is so overdone - so I have to conclude that Best Script is given for cleverness of dialogue and effort at moralization rather than the substance of story. (But the script does have some merits in theme - see Last Words.) I was annoyed at the cheap drama and lazy ending, and the parts I enjoyed the most were irrelevant to the story (mostly, the bimbo-hipster dynamic).
Also, I hate the Apollo tradition of faculty references which I don't get.
Character-wise, I loved the sluts (red slut, call me) and I thought the guy (Fan? Fun? Farn? Pharn?) looked a lot like the brooding teenager from Little Miss Sunshine. The too-cool-for-you hipstress was a golden product of hipster hate, which is ironic, which of course is part of the fun.
So yes, a typical Apollo production, with a slide from last year's Stereotype Play (which I didn't give a very good review of anyway).
Last Words
Which faculty followed the theme most faithfully? The plays of Let Them Eat Cake should touch on, if not address fully,
1) The ignorance of higher-ups,
2) the essential failure of empathy, and
3) the empty sweetness of the high life.
Artemis hinted the at the first one with the high and mighty mad scientist (oh, another stereotype) before its swift and sure descent into incoherence. Athena managed the first more successfully, and the second (with the cool Jack Tan and the whole forced moral coda) facetiously. Ares jerkily tried to fit in the first two, but as I said, weak script, weak story, weak conclusion. Apollo focused overwhelming on the last theme, which I suspected made it won the Best Script, and the first and second themes were also adequately approached, so there was some unity involved.
Indubitably the standard of this year's Dramafeste has dipped from last year's. My hope for next year: always, always have a story. The physical manifestation of acting, sets and props are important but they only play a supporting role. I look forward to a time when people watch plays in Hwa Chong not because of loyalty to their faculties but because they're truly entranced by the stories being told through movements and humour and worlds set on a small area but infinitely bigger than the constrains of the stage. Like I said to my friend last night, we're all stuck in this bunched-up LT. If there's a fire, we'll probably all die. So give us something to live for.
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