The Real
Inspector Hound probes the idea of reality - questioning what is,
well, real - and exposes the blurry boundaries between the
audience and the stage.
Those familiar with Stoppard would have been acquainted with this comedy.
Not side-splittingly funny but definitely memorable. The play begins
with two theatre reviewers, Moon (Hansel Tan) and Birdboot (Joel Lim),
who find each other at the theatre, watching what they presume is a
whodunnit. At the end of the first act of the whodunnit, the killer
is still on the loose. In the midst of their furious professional banter
about how the play fared and how it is going to progress, the telephone
onstage rings incessantly. One wonders why the reviewers did not move
back to their seats in quiet anticipation of the commencement of the
new act (like they naturally would when an onstage phone rings). In
any case, Moon impatiently troops onstage to answer it. And this is
when the fun really begins.
The person at the other end of the call turns out to be Birdboot's
wife, Myrtle, and she wants to speak to him. Goodness knows how she
got connected to that telephone, but it surely adds to the humour and
the mystery of the play. To Moon's horror and the audience's amusement,
Birdboot does not return to his seat after taking the telephone call.
Instead, he conveniently takes the place of Simon Gascoyne (Ebi Shankara),
a character in the whodunnit. In Moon's attempt to pull Birdboot out
of this mess, he gets himself entangled too. Moon becomes Inspector
Hound, while the reviewers' places are taken by the original Gascoyne
and Inspector Hound from the play. In Moon's panic due to his strange
new circumstances, he lets slip his fake identity to the characters
and ends up getting shot by the real Inspector Hound, who is actually
Puckeridge, Moon's real-life reviewing deputy!
It is all hugely confusing, no doubt, but rather fascinating with it.
In The Real Inspector Hound, the idea of the stage is deconstructed,
and the possibility of the audience's participation in the world of
the play is explored. Perhaps, to paraphrase Shakespeare, all the world
literally is a stage.
Buds Youth Theatre's staging of this curious piece scored with its
intriguing and attention-grabbing set design and pop-art-like costumes
and make-up. Set designer Sebastian Zeng chose to bind all the furniture
with cloth of the same colour, creating a shade of monotony across the
set. While the tightly bound furniture represented a cover-up of what
is real, its uniform colour told of an intimate connection between the
reviewers' and the actors' arenas.
Costumes and make-up were clever and flamboyant, and they pushed the
characters into caricatures. Felicity's get-up was most glaring and
left the strongest impression. Dressed in a fire engine red Lycra dress
teamed with pointy heels of the same hue, she also had on a long-sleeved
shrug of bright yellow with an aqua ribbon at the front. What was most
unforgettable was her
make-up: multiple lipstick marks drawn all over her face. No two characters
dressed in the same shade, and no actor escaped the fate of wearing
something over the top. This greatly enhanced the audience's visual
experience.
Unfortunately, the young cast did not deliver as well as their design
counterparts. Enunciation was weak for most of them, and accents - if
they were proper accents at all - were all over the place. Simon sounded
disconcertingly Indian at one point, while Magnus (Kelvin John Lim)
spoke in a familiar Singaporean staccato with a voice that sounded like
an eager twenty-year-old instead of the conniving middle-aged man he
should have been. Inspector Hound (Ang Yi Han) also had a voice that
was not grounded. He kept to the same high frequency throughout his
entire time onstage, which was a pain to the ears and, I suspect, to
his own throat as well. His poor voice work was also a contributing
factor to the sinking endings of his lines.
There were several weak moments in the play that made me question whether
the actors truly knew their characters well. As Birdboot, Lim's eyes
were shifty, and he talked too fast at times. There were also instances
when it was hard to tell the emotion he wanted to convey. And his mendacious
attempts to defend himself as a "family man" were feeble or even half-hearted
when they should have been full of bluster. Inspector Hound seemed like
a bunch of nerves the whole time - I have no idea why - though I am
certain it was not because of actor Ang's own nerves. The chemistry
between the actors had not been established either, and this was particularly
telling in a scene where Simon and the reviewers were supposed to speak
lines with no apparent connection in quick succession to create a comic
effect. The timing was off for this scene, which resulted in its humour
falling flat.
However, the show was not without a saving grace. Hansel Tan presented
Moon convincingly, with a good amount of energy and gusto. Tan could
well be the one who held the performance together from the start to
the end. And how could I forget the wonderfully inert portrayal of Higgs,
the dead body that never budged an inch, and remained half-sprawled
over the table throughout the play!
The energy level was rather low in the first half but fortunately picked
up in the second half, when the reviewers broke the stage boundaries
and became part of the play they were watching.
Despite the glitches, I think these young people deserve a pat on the
back for their sense of adventure and passion for the craft. Also, Buds
Youth Theatre should definitely continue its work in providing free
drama and theatre skills training to youths. As someone who is of an
age eligible to join the company, I believe budding young actors would
greatly appreciate such a place, where they are provided with the chance
to learn relevant skills from professionals.
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"The energy level was rather low at the first half but fortunately
picked up in the second half, when the reviewers broke the stage boundaries
and became part of the play they were watching"
Credits
Playwright: Tom Stoppard
Director: Tan Cheng Hung
Production Manager: Claire Devine
Stage Management: Carolene, Sahirah and Jeremy
Crew: Ashley and Ghaz
Set Design: Sebastian Zeng
Lighting Design: James Tan
Sound Design: Robert Devine
Visual Design: Tan Aiwei
Costume Design: Edna Pan
Wigs Design: Ashley's Salon
Cast: Hansel Tan, Joel Lim, Cheryl Lee, Rebecca Lee,
Ebi Shankara, Pamela Tham, Kelvin John Lim and Ang Yi Han
Previous Productions by Buds Youth Theatre
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