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Haunted House was a poorly conceptualised and terribly executed "ghost story" - secondary school campfire style. Actors sounded and acted like they were barely in the first week of rehearsals and Benny Lim's awkward lines certainly didnt make things easier. Designed to be a scare fest without special effects, Haunted House's scary elements meant corny Teochew opera clips played at double speed while Dwayne Tan strives for a catatonic mental patient look. It could be simply unexperienced actors and insufficient planning but scenes like Ben Yeo sitting on the stage's edge crying in his spotlight while KTV chinese pop ballad blares from the speakers hinted that the production was haunted by bathos from the start.

I wonder why Ms Kon is being so generous in critiquing what clearly was a execreble piece of theatre. Here, point for point, is my experience of that evening (as agreed with and confirmed by several fellow viewers) :

* The writing was utterly disjointed and at odds with human behaviour, however haunted these characters may be. Example : what recently bereaved sister says "I never thought our parents' death could affect my brither so strongly ?"

* The attempts at suggesting the 'ghost' were pitiful. They were neither effectively abstract nor naturalisticaaly evocative. A projected image and repeated wails are the sad results of trying to imitate B-grade HongKong ghost films. 'Horror' as Benny labels it, needs tp be expressed differently on stage - ie. with a 'live' quality, not effects.

* Acting. Where can we start ? The sister has clearly no idea what it means to be a character, not make speeches. The boyfriend could do with one more expression, bringing his performance to a grand total of two expressions. The haunted brother, though clearly trying his best, was at no time able to evoke fear (probably made impossible by endless scenes of trauma with no motivation to kickstart them.)

* Directing. Blocking was surreal - certain characters went thru doors, others didn't. Perhaps these were the ghosts. At no point did the physical manner of the characters become anything close to life - if this is Benny's attempt at 'naturalism', give us 'experimental and messy' any day.

* Set. It looked interesting until the dustsheets were removed. It took half the play to realize the bedroom was a separate space - nothing indicated this until a line was said that was possibly the only startling moment in the play. Why was the bed reduced to a deckchair with a wooden block, futilely covered in an unfitting sheet ? Is their new house so poorly furnished ? To the extent that the brown bag must be placed under the head of the bed, nowhere else ? And can anyone explain that huge 3-sided structure in his room that conveniently acts as a screen for scary projections and credits too.

* Props. It would have been nice to have consistentcy. Breakfast is invisible but eaten out of real bowls, while noodles bought home are in a clearly empty plastic bag that falls over abd blows away in the slightest breeze. Did ANY thought go into naturalistic consistency ?

* Lighting. Failed to identify spaces, and did not succeed in creating atmosphere. Instead, the green light signalled shamelessly the chinese ghost cliche.

* We agree with Bailey that the MTV edge-of-stage moment is a sad attempt to mimic film. Does the director not know there is a difference between these genres ? So much of this play suggests he may not have noticed.

The list could go on and on. The audience with us that night gave up trying to understand, as Stella suggests - not because they were impatient Western-trained audiences, but because they had come to be told a story and shown human characters - but none were forthcoming. The ones who remained, SMSing in their seats and whispering to each other, were the courteous and hardworking ones. The others left before the interval.

Let us hope that Benny Lim learns what theatre is, what acting is, what a play is, and what a crime it is to inflict such a malformed piece of goods on the audience. There is no room in the local scene for work of such poor quality, and the fact that government money is going into this production is the true horror of Haunted House.

I believe that Stella Kon has taken a broader approach in her review, which might just be the critical one. We can't judge acting by pure expectation alone. Say for Dwayne Tan - he has never taken Chinese as a language. Hence, i believe that we have to judge with that in mind. Same for Ben Yeo. It is his first attempt on stage and again we have to view him from there. No one started out as very good actors and sometimes we have to see beyond that. i also agree with Stella Kon that language was used with bare simplicity and at least that was kept with consistency throughout the show. I got from their publicity in a radio program that this show is not designed to scare and i believe that many people enter the auditorium waiting to be frightened, including my friends. This false expectation of the audiences themselves should be the responsibility of the audiences themselves, not the production. And of course, as Stella Kon says, it is all subjective. I couldn't disagree with that. Perhaps the director will like to come in to address us.

Well, from what i heard of the production from local renowned theatre directors, it was painful and a shame for local theatre. I did not watch the play (though i have watched a couple of their previous and so did not bother myself to watch Haunted House) so i have no rights to comment about the production. However, i am greatly disturbed by the previous posting regarding that we should go into a theatre (in this case Fun Stage's production) with sympathy... that we should consider the fact that Dwayne has no mandarin speaking background and Ben having no experience? Should we go into a theatre ready to forgive poor standards and play aunt agony - to understand the problems the production have and listen them out? Are we paying to go in and see things from the production point of view? It is too much to ask for from an audience. That is not the job of a paying audience, i am afraid... We know about Dwayne's performance standard, he has done well in other productions... we know it's Ben's debut production, he has potential... but a bad production is a bad production, no excuses for it. The director should consider the elements and resources he have at hand and balance them out... working on the weakness and build on the strength... not "oh, too bad" or "such are the naturally endowed weakness and hence the poor quality, so please sympathise and excuse us"...If the director have failed to make things work then he should probably reconsider his approach. We have to acknowledge that and improve. A self indulgent "oh, its becoz so and so and so..." would not help up the standards here. I agree that Stella Kon has taken a slightly grander perspective in her review and her encouraging review, i hope, would serve to motivate Fun Stage to improve their production standards in all aspects and not deluding them to think that they had done well. It's difficult to judge whether a show is good... but it's not too difficult to judge whether a show is sub-standard... i hope Fun Stage would reconsider their agenda and take theatre seriously henceforth... peace

Dear Ano,

I do see an interesting point raised in your posting.

If we were to go into a production with a certain level of expectation (which naturally comes from our level of performance appreciation). Then, the sky is the limited then.

If we were someone who was frequently exposed to productions of a so-called "better presentation", then levels of appreciation/critique would be very different.

My point is, I agree with you. If we realise that shows are of a certain standard, and this standard seems to be stagnated at certain levels (No judgements made as it is highly subjective differing from person to person). It reflects the state theatre making is in in Singapore.