Six:Dramafest 2008 reviews, and more interviews

I’m thoroughly sad that I’m not part of Six Confessions: the Interhall Dramafest 2008, the second iteration of short plays by a whole bunch of really talented people. I was acting last year and I met some really fantastic people, and being on the opposite side of the curtain comforts me none.

I suppose that being in the audience of has its perks. It really exceeded my expectations. There was a sensation of each play trying to outdo the last one — pity the first play. Even though there was only two-three weeks for the actors to pick up everything, I think that they did a great service to the audience by presenting us something worth watching (and that’s not doing it the justice it deserves). Plus, it was free.

A short review of plays at Dramafest by chronology

A feminist Irish Drinking song. Whodathunk. Girls, pretending to drink beer?

“Between You and Me” by Laremy is a Brechtian play discussing femininity and the female breast. It takes the format of a discussion by two women (and a man) about their sexual experiences and how they relate to their breasts — whether embracing it as a form of dominance, as a integral part of feminine sexuality, or eschewing the condescending male gaze. It does break the forth wall, the actors do acknowledge and address the audience, and asks them, “So what is the message we’re trying to tell here?”. They then break out into an Irish Drinking Song ala Whose Line. Danielle Woong, a producer again taking up a part, took up an ostensibly male character’s role, which comes off as particularly gender neutral.

Viknesk being a lecher. I mean, portraying a lecher.

“Maid in Singapore” by Nadia is a social awareness play which tries to highlight the plight of foreign workers hired as domestic help. It juxtaposes two families: one where the female employer is abusive towards their maid, possibly because her husband is cheating on her; the other where the husband is secretly having an affair with the maid. Viknesk again gets a similar role from last year’s Dramafest: a sleeping, lying bastard. I like how there is a tension between both sides of the story — one cannot be abusive to a maid, yet if the maid is elevated to the level of equal, then another set of problems emerge.

I Fake it in bed! Oh yeah? I fake it in bed and out of bed!

“I Fake It In Bed” by Desiree, is ostensibly inspired by Postsecret, a website where anonymous people reveal their deepest secrets by sending in postcards. Three characters take turn to make short pity confessions of the perverted things they do. I think that while this was the shortest play of the six, it was also the tightest play. Acting and timing was spot on, and had a wonderful twist at the end. It was very much like a six-word story, and was a delight to watch.

Wilvin in his perpetually “huh?” state.

“Suzuki” by Nobu, Xiaoxuan and Joe (Eva too) takes place between two office workers who are pulling an all-nighter to complete a project. A side conversation quickly turns into a comedy of errors when the worker mistakenly thinks that his boss is talking about his Japanese girlfriend when he is actually talking about his motorcycle. Timing was well done, it did manage to garner the laughs and Wilvin does look the part for the stoned and fatigued white-collar worker.

Heh heh heh, you’re not getting an operation because I am a bastard. Heh heh heh.

“A Matter of Principle” by Laremy is a situational play where a young man who only has a month to live appeals to the hospital manager to approve a highly risky procedure to save his life. From what I heard the director is acting the role of the young man and his depiction was a stuttering, unsure man. The bureaucratic manager was spot-on, although I would have imagined it in a more John Cleese bureaucrat manner. Personally, this is my least favourite play, I think the manager was unduly villified and cardboard-thin so the play really turns out to be pulp fiction shock than a criticism of just principles.

Okay, I think slept with him who thought he slept with his sister who think she’s lesbian. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter as long because it’s funny!

“The Night Before” by Manbeer, another Dramafest sophomore, is an ensemble comedy where four people wake up in bed together, all thinking that they had slept with some one or another, hilarity ensues. While it isn’t exactly the most original of ideas, it was well executed and Musa probably saved the drama as the deus ex machina. I don’t know how he knew who slept with who, presumably because it was his party, but he just sorted all of them out and left them to be funny.

Small rant: Dramafest seems to have a naming problem. We can’t call it Six because you’d go like, “Are you taking part in Six?” and I would definitely go I’d rather not discuss my personal life right now. On the other hand, we can’t call it dramafest either (although that’s the most common way to refer to it) simply because there are a zillion other dramafests out there.

Another rant: What’s the point of having a theme when nobody ever adheres to it? Last year it was Colours, and there was only one play that had actually something remotely to do with colours. This year, the theme was Confessions, and again there was only one play that was actually somewhat confessional. Really, the M18 rating notwithstanding, it felt more like the theme was “Sex”. You can see there’s sex in all them plays except a Matter of Principle, but it’s there alright.

And finally, I am arranging for a roundtable interview with all the producers! Eva, Danielle, Chethan, and Musa, and guest scriptwriter Laremy Lee, since one of his plays got axed by CFA but nevertheless two others still survived. It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s going to be worthwhile. I think that there’s a signficant bit of interhall politics going on here, and it can probably die out if there isn’t enough leadership. Furthermore, interviewing them will set a standard for next year’s dramafest, and the following years. So I am committed to doing it, whether or not if it gets published in the Ridge. It just deserves to be documented in more than just the perfunctory ad on Ridgeonline.

Note to self: need camera, quality voice recorder, and a good place to do an interview

Edit 21 March: Included pictures with attempted witticisms from EH Eusoffworks.