Three of us were dragged along by a friend who was coerced by one of his ex-Sheares hallmates, now a Resident Fellow at KR. I was reluctant to be there amidst the pile of demands I am dealing with right now.
Initially the poor audio quality had me wondering when I could bail out and we nearly used our handphone lights to read the lyrics in the programme. During the intermission in fact, I boned up on the lyrics, however, they fixed that glitch later.
Once the dialogue started, however, it was engaging and fun! The star was a mini-Dollie (as in PCK’s wife), who even sounded like her! She was energetic and clear and chimed in with perky rejoinders. I enjoyed the dialogue and themes that were explored – the audience responded to the emotions depicted as well. The props were great and some effort went in to make pieces that were flashed at times, only for a minute or so. But all to good effect. The main actors were fine and I enjoyed the background reactions of the supporting actors too. The hostelite-dominated audience were audibly entertained, providing a supportive atmosphere for the evening.
One thing though, the crew needs to be more enthusiastic when their names are called out and they venture up to the stage for us to eyeball them. They were all a little shy and although that was nice (in a way) to see, it’d be better for them simply to accept the applause with enthusiasm. The audience will respond to that more and they may as well lap it up while it lasts anyway…
So it was an enjoyable night for me, and when we left, I dismissed the mild grumblings of my friends. But I think they were exhausted after a long week and the play had a couple of pauses that might have thrown them off. In fact there was no late night kopi as they were all eager to hit the sack and I realised I was tired too.
So ironically it looks like the most reluctant attendee in our group enjoyed it the most! Why, I even blogged about it!
Trailer for the Kent Ridge Hall play:
Link to review in The Ridge Online.
Otterman speaks... 