The Raffles
name has a special place in Singapore culture. There seems to be an
unwritten rule that if you have "Raffles" as part of your name, you
need to provide a service or product of distinction: Raffles Hotel,
Singapore Airlines' Raffles Class and the family of Raffles Schools
are just some examples. Part of this is because it pays tribute to our
country's founder but part of it, I suspect, also has to do with the
colonial heritage implied by the name. After all, for all that we trumpet
our pride in our Asian values and traditions, there is still, 189 years
after Raffles founded Singapore, a segment of the national psyche that
retains a west-is-best mentality, whether we'd like to admit it or not.
At the same time, like many previously colonized countries, we have
also matured as a nation and take pride in our independence and indigenous
culture. We certainly do not view our days under colonial rule through
rose-tinted glasses either. In fact, I think many people of my generation
rarely think about Singapore specifically as a former British colony
at all, so far and so quickly have we come as a nation that we seem
to have emerged Aphrodite-like from the sea.
Perhaps because of this, as playwright (and Inkpot writer) Ng Yi-Sheng
noted during the talkback session, within the Singapore theatre canon,
there has not really been a distinctly post-colonial play. We have plays
about nation building and what it means to be a Singaporean but they
do not necessarily address these issues in the context of our colonial
past. If anything, it is the paternalistic PAP and its figurehead Minister
Mentor Lee, rather than the British Empire, who is the forefather that
we children rebel against. This, I would argue, is also because, at
least according to our history books, the British did not particularly
oppress native Singaporeans. It is, in fact, the Japanese Occupation
rather than British rule which is usually framed as the great blight
on Singapore's past. Also (unlike in India, for example) the departure
of the British was relatively smooth and not marked by violence. Compared
to say, the history of exploitation and slavery brought to Africa by
American and European colonialists that has been a preoccupation of
black artists for decades (and arguably remains one), what has there
been for us to rally against or tear down in terms of our relationship
with our colonial rulers?
It is to Ng's credit that he is able to see what is truly relevant
about Raffles' story for Singaporeans today. Temptation, a
theatrical biography which mixes historical facts with dramatic fiction,
does not take a simplistic post-colonial stance to fill the gap that
he has identified. Instead, Ng leap-frogs over it and adopts a post-post-colonial
stance in Temptation, bringing together two different readings
of Singapore's past to unveil a Raffles who is both laudable (a colonial
reading) and flawed (a post-colonial reading). Ng presents a Raffles
(whose family crest aptly sports a two-headed eagle) who is against
slavery and makes the effort to learn the indigenous language of Malay,
but who also believes in colonization as a means of accruing material
wealth and power for the British Empire and who abandons Singapore after
having spent less than a year on the island. Of course, a protagonist
who is a complex and fragmented figure rather than a saint or sinner
is not exactly groundbreaking but it does provide an apt metaphor for
what Ng feels are the many tensions faced by middle-class Singaporeans
stuck at the crossroads of the modern and the traditional. In the play,
an addled and dying Raffles looks back on his life as an explorer through
fevered visions and is torn between ungardened, earthy temptations as
represented by Patricia Toh dressed as a big, red rafflesia, and the
civilized world of British law as represented by a completely whited
out Ian Tan who is supposed to be a statue of Raffles come to life.
Similarly, young Singaporeans today struggle with difficult choices
as well. We have to choose between staying in Singapore or leaving for
supposedly greener pastures overseas. Because we know our government
is watching over us, we sleep soundly in our beds but, at the same time,
we worry constantly that this same government is slowly suffocating
us. Ng has been particularly astute in using the rafflesia as one of
the play's central motifs: it is hailed as the largest flower in the
world - but it is also one of the smelliest. This works well as a symbol
for our country and its people: we are so proud of Singapore ("a top-ranked
port, a world-class media, a stable society where every creed and every
race has its role and has its place") and yet we know that much of her
success and power are illusory - we remain a ridiculously small country
with no natural resources and seem to take one step backwards for every
two forward in terms of social progress. What, then, do we, the contradictory
children of a contradictory nation, make of ourselves and our place
in the world?
So the play is less about presenting an emotionally engaging narrative
or a historical account of Raffles' life than it is about what it means
to be Singaporean in the 21st century. Even on those terms, however,
I must say I was still disappointed because I felt that the script merely
held a mirror to this issue rather than shedding new light on it. I
kept waiting for the play to go to the next level but it never quite
happened: Temptation showed the situation without really probing
it.
Having said that, Temptation does work well as a theatrical
presentation, especially when it is exploring the dichotomies of Raffles'
life - for example, when Toh is literally set against Tan in a surreal
scene in which the two wrestle with each other. Director Christina Sergeant
also helps to stir up some drama with smoke machines and shadow puppetry,
which battle for our attention against pretty period costumes and a
creative set that transforms ingeniously yet simply from the bed the
aged Raffles is resting in to the boat he travels on as a young man.
Unfortunately, such theatrics, along with the abundance of historical
factoids and a lack of ambition in exploring the issues of the play
also make Temptation come across like something commissioned
by the Singapore Tourism Board rather than a fully fledged play.
Another problem with the script is that some sections are dry because
they rely on too much exposition and a presumed interest on the part
of the audience in learning the little details of Raffles' life (he
loved animals and set up Singapore's first zoo!). Thankfully, these
are occasionally saved by the sharp wit of the playwright: in answer
to the query, "Is it very easy to lose things on a ship?", Raffles'
first wife Olivia quips, "Naturally. The last time I went to the East,
I lost my virginity."
The script also has other strengths. My review of Angel-ism,
another play in the Singapore Theatre Festival this year, ended with
my writing about how the play emphasized not only Singapore's multiculturalism
but also its multilingualism. One of the things I liked about Temptation
was how similarly strident it was in this regard. The script weaves
in both the Malay folksong Di Tanjong Katong as well as lines
of verse by Shelley and Shakespeare, and there are lines in Malay and
Tamil spoken by Chinese and Caucasian actors. The play takes pains to
remind us of the multiethnic origins of the characters (we are told
that Farquhar's wife, for example, had a Malaccan mother and a French
father) and celebrates a symphony of accents including Jamaican and
Scottish. This forces us to acknowledge one of the few indisputably
beautiful things about Singapore: the fact that people of different
lands, cultures and tongues co-exist harmoniously (if we want to be
optimistic) and certainly without open conflict (if we want to be unnecessarily
cynical). This point is particularly poignant in this case as Raffles,
for all his uppity Englishness, nonetheless made the effort to learn
to speak Malay so that he could better integrate with the people of
Singapore. How many of us Singaporean Chinese can make that claim?
There are other little flourishes that further enrich the play. Raffles'
life is described as a "broken mansion" at one point and set designer
Wong Chee Wai has taken this to heart with an oversize but slanted set
that evokes both a careening ship and a life in decline. If we look
carefully, we see another clever detail: the steelwork that decorates
Raffles' bedroom back in England draws inspiration from tropical flora.
A feminist perspective can also be brought to bear on Ng's decision
to have Sophia, Raffles' second wife, as the omniscient narrator of
Temptation. In the programme notes, Sergeant emphasizes that
Sophia, though pretty much unknown in history, should be commended for
fighting so hard to preserve Raffles' memory: she wrote his memoirs
and commissioned a statue of him to be placed in Westminster Abbey.
This, then, is perhaps the playwright's way of lighting a candle for
Sophia, the unsung hero, the woman behind the man. If so, I personally
find his decision a little trite - but it does add another layer to
the play nonetheless. Much better were the costumes by Moe Kasim. Tan,
head-to-toe in plaster-white body paint as Raffles' statue, was certainly
striking but I liked Toh's rafflesia costume even more. Pairing the
large red cut-out of the flower with a black pair of ripped fishnet
stockings was the perfect touch to bring out the raw sensuality she
is supposed to represent.
The ensemble cast, however, provided few surprises. Though perfectly
competent, none of the actors had the spark to truly set their characters
alight - although, to be fair, I suspect that this was largely because
the script consisted mostly of caricatures. I found Claire Devine (Sophia)
and Candice de Rosario (Raffles' sister, Mary Anne) to be very one-note,
for example, but then the script gave them little to do besides play
the suffering wife and the comedy sidekick respectively. Rehaan Engineer
as Raffles and Jo Tan as Olivia left more of an impression as their
roles were more fleshed out and mixed moments of high drama with touches
of light comedy. Still, neither performance seemed internalized enough
to be wholly convincing. The standout for me was Toh, whose effervescent
personality suited her role perfectly, especially when, in the opening
scenes of Temptation, she teasingly moved around the bedroom
so that Raffles could always see her but his wife could not. Having
said that, while Toh is certainly an entertaining and charismatic actor,
she does need to work on her word stress, which can be quite odd in
places and thus distracting. |
"What do we, the contradictory children of a contradictory nation,
make of ourselves and our place in the world?"
Credits
Playwright: Ng Yi-Sheng
Director: Christina Sergeant
Set Design: Wong Chee Wai
Lighting Design: James Tan
Sound Design: Shah Tahir
Costume Design: Moe Kasim
Hair Design: Ashley Lim
Makeup Design: M.A.C.
Puppet Makers: Candice de Rozario, Ian Tan
Producer: Tony Trickett
Production Manager: Purpink Chung
Stage Manager: Toh Lin
Technical Manager: Teo Kuang Han
Assistant Stage Manager: June Wong
Stage Assistant: Farina Bte Sidik
Wardrobe Mistress: Nurhidayah Mahadi
Wardrobe Assistant: Sophian Sazali
Cast: Fazli Ahmad, Claire Devine, Candice de Rozario,
Rehaan Engineer, Tony McGill, Ian Tan, Jo Tan, Tien Devine and Patricia
Toh
Photography: Albert Lim KS
Second Opinion
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From: The Editor (matthewlyon@myway.com / Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 22:46:20)
Got anything to say about the review or the production? Click the button above to let us know.
From: Paul Rae (paul@spell7.net / Saturday, September 6, 2008 at 23:25:52)
Not that I wish to split hairs on an issue unrelated to the play, but the statement "the departure of the British was relatively smooth and not marked by violence" does require a little unpacking. The British departure was marked by violence - it's just that, rather than the mass bloodletting that followed their abrupt withdrawal from India, it was characterised by more than a decade of insurgency and counter-terrorism measures. The Emergency lasted so long because the British were trying to work out how to leave without burning all their bridges. The violence, the laws and mentality of counter-insurgency, and the various ideological struggles to which it gave rise, comprehensively shaped the social and political landscape we still inhabit today. It may be one of the reasons Singapore could be described as both postcolonial, and neo-colonial.
From: Kenneth Kwok (theatre@inkpot.com / Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 10:29:31)
I stand corrected. My History teacher would be extremely ashamed of me. However, and I should have phrased it better, my point is really about the way history is perceived - whether or not the exit of the British was actually marked by great violence, it is generally not perceived to be. I believe most Singaporeans, especially the younger generation, would say that the exit of the British was relatively smooth (in comparision to India) - and that was the point I was trying to make. Still, thanks for keeping me on my toes!
From: Ng Yi-Sheng (ng.yisheng@gmail.com / Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 14:11:00)
Could we add in one extra credit? One of the cast members was Tien Devine, who played Raffles's daughter Charlotte - she was brought in at a later stage, and wasn't named in the programme.
From: The Editor (theatre@inkpot.com / Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 19:09:56)
Tien Devine has been added to the cast list, thanks.
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