Lovepuke
was billed as a "fast-paced, quirky, contemporary love play about eight
people who fall in and out of love, sex and relationships" and while
this production lacked the confidence and polish of Toy Factory's 1999
run of the same play (also directed by Jeffrey Tan and sharing cast
members Chua Enlai and Janice Koh, albeit in different roles), TheatreWorks'
version certainly lived up to its hype.
A lot of credit goes to New Zealander Duncan Sarkies' script which
crackled with wit and insight. Biting one-liners and acerbic put-downs
came fast and furious but it was not all barbs and sarcasm - there were
moments of great innocence, charm and sweetness in both the comedy and
the characters (e.g. Her: "I like water skiing!"; Him: "That's great!
I like water!") which gave the script much texture. Sarkies also managed
to get into the heads of the various archetypes that populate the dating
pool at your local singles bar (geographical boundaries seeming irrelevant):
the helpless romantic, the himbo, the ball-busting tease, the closet
case and, of course, the boy and ah lian next door. And because their
stories were told in criss-crossing vignettes within a tight 60 minutes,
all the set pieces and punchlines were golden throughout and you never
spent so much time with any one character that you got bored.
The vignettes about the lives of the three couples occasionally cut
away to musical numbers and to two narrator-type figures and these also
helped to lift the play, although an extended run of musical numbers
and poetic verses as a coda did threaten to try one's patience. Even
a couple of the cast members looked embarrassed to be singing along
to Love Is In the Air at the end!
Director Jeffrey Tan handled the pacing of the play well, keeping things
fast and furious, and he proved to be adept with the many different
strands of comedy running through the play. Much of the laughter, for
example, came from the use of swear words, simulated sex acts and scatological
references and while these were cheap shots, there is no denying that
they work tremendously well - as they did here - if the tone of the
play is light enough and the cast themselves are in on the game. A particularly
memorable moment was when one of the narrator figures, a cynic expounding
on the joys of singlehood, played by Rajesh Krishnamuti admitted to
masturbating and then went up to individual members of the audience
and accused them with macho bluster, "I bet you masturbate too!" He
was clearly enjoying himself as he did it and that energy was infectious.
Tan also handled the gentler strands of comedy well, no easy task because
of the greater truths inherent in some of these comic elements. The
use of note cards as props was one good example. The surprising ways
in which they were used created much comedy but also said a lot about
dating and relationships: A man wiped his crocodile tears with a note
card that had the word "hanky" on it (dating as a performance); lovers
held up note-cards with "First" or "Second" to indicate who orgasmed
sooner (love as a competition) - to say nothing of Janice Koh's character,
who ended up holding up "Third" and "Fourth" note-cards as well!
The success of a play like this, however, ultimately rests on its cast.
Imagine Sex and the City or Friends with a clunky
cast. Suddenly they don't seem as funny or sexy anymore. In this case,
even the weakest links were by no means bad and as an ensemble, represented
one of the finest gatherings of (the younger) acting talents in Singapore
that I have seen.
Chermaine Ang, Brendon Fernandez and Ravi Raaj Marimootoo had the least
showy roles but were well-cast and easily won the audience over with
their natural ease and chemistry onstage. But it was Chua Enlai and
Janice Koh who commanded the stage with comic timing you could set your
Panerai to and a real feel for their over-the-top characters. Both are
quite clearly among the finest the Singapore stage has to offer, handling
both the heart and humour of their characters with great skill and flair.
Caught in all the high-octane energy, however, Annie Lee overplayed
her hand and her sweet romantic became a little too exaggerated and
trying at times. Rajesh Krishnamuti, likewise, seemed to be playing
more to a tweenie audience than a yuppie one, with larger-than-life
facial expressions that made him too much of a caricature and impossible
to be taken seriously as a cynic. The more subtle and drier comic stylings
of Hossan Leong in the same role in the 1993 production proved more
successful in making me invest in this outsider character.
And then we had Denise Tan, the second narrator-figure, a performance
artist who for the most part was in a corner of the stage playing by
herself (arguably, "with" herself as well since she seemed to be enjoying
her constipation a little too much) and punctuating the proceedings
with verses comparing love to a bodily function more related to what
goes on in the loo than the bedroom. Her character seemed largely superfluous
although her nursery rhymes about poo and goo goo - for isn’t
love an equally messy if necessary part of life? - were indeed amusing
and delivered with much aplomb. Her moment in the sun, however, came
with a show-stopper of a solo musical number that made it all worthwhile.
What a voice! - see you on Singapore Idol Season 2!
I felt that the eventual wedding between the two narrator figures which
tied up the play was a little forced but I appreciate that Sarkies acknowledged
this in the script with a nudge and a wink and also left the stories
of the other characters relatively open-ended.
In the real world of love, sex and relationships, after all, unlike
plays about love, there are, sadly, no "obligatory happy endings".
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"As an ensemble, the cast represented one of the finest gatherings
of (the younger) acting talents in Singapore that I have seen"
Credits
Writer: Duncan Sarkies
Director: Jeffrey Tan
Cast: Chua Enlai, Brendon Fernandez, Rajesh Krishnamuti,
Ravi Raj Marimootoo, Janice Koh, Chermaine Ang, Denise Tan, Annie Lee
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