A Small Peace Called Imagination...

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Today I watched the play called "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" with some of my groupmates in Theatre Studies module. The play is directed and written by my very own TS instructor, Chong Tze Chien. At first I decided to come just for my curiosity sake. Tze Chien was awarded Life! Theatre Award for Production of the Year a few weeks ago for his previous play "Furthest North, Deepest South". So I wonder what his play looks like. And I never regretted.

Five of us came to watch the play at The Arts House (Old Parliament building). The venue is nice, it has some elegance for those art events. But I never expected that the play itself takes place in the Play Den, which is rather a small room (perhaps only about 100 seats) so all of us sit close to the stage. The seats are on the 3 sides of wall and each side has about4-5 rows. I think my TS practical exam venue resembles this one. It's good becoz the voice projection is better, but it's bad coz everybody (esp. the judges for my PE which comprises of my lecturer and 2 instructors) can look at u closely, even can see your sweat and tears.

Anyway, about the play itself. The theme is about upgrading. It takes place on 3 different families who stay on an HDB flat. The residents are offered upgrading of their flats. Ironically, the things which need the foremost upgrade is not the flat, not the room, but themselves. Each of the characters in the play. Like what's written on the play's flyer "It's about families who can't make up their damn minds about anything". It's about honesty. It's about families. It's about morality. It's about the devil sides inside each of us. In the first family stays a dying grandma and her grandson. The grandson wants his independent life and feels fed up taking care of her and has no life while he intends to pursue his further study in US. In the second family, a 17 yr old daughter has conflict with her mom coz her mom's boyfriend sometimes seduces her but her mom wanna have someone who she can rely on for the rest of her life after her husband died. In the third family, an old couple in their 60s argue about retirement and their 29yr old daughter who commited a crime and is hunted by police. The result is chaos, heated argument, and weeping in each family. The play ends with each of them gradually "upgrades" themselves.

I like the story plot and how the story is delivered in 3 languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew) with English subtitles. I've never watched movies or plays where the actors speak 3 different languages. I like the lighting, music and timing which are so perfect and sets certain mood in audiences. The set design is also simple yet so alive. For example, they only use a large paper with a rectangle-shaped hole in the center to symbolize a window, but they make use of it such that we believe it's window. There are also actors who play as ghosts during the whole play, to symbolize the demons inside of us.

The play took about 2 hours. After that we meet Tze Chien on outside. He seems quite glad to see his students come to watch his play (he should give us an A grade hehehe). We congratulated him for winning the Life! Theatre Award and chit-chat a bit. He said he took about 3 months to do the play, including the rehearsal of 3-4 times a week. The play was originally written in English, before it's translated to other dialects. I think he's a genius. I'm so mesmerized with his play, and so are my other groupmates. The way he writes and directs a whole play truly deserve him to win a theatre award. Quick go watch this play if u haven't. Click www.fingerplayers.com for more information. Sorry for promotion here =P I just wanna support my teacher. So proud of him.

posted by pembual kata @ 11:18 PM