After: Imports — a double bill (21st June – 1st July)

I watched a double bill production, Imports, at KLPAC. If you want to know whether you should watch it, the overall answer is: Yes. Can layan.

I won’t do a review, but these are some brief thoughts from the production:

• Street Lamp Named Desire (SLND) and Methods work well in the short format — 30 minutes each is about right.
• Of the double bill, Methods is the stronger of the two. It is denser, maintains a better pace, and the gedikness and bitchiness you see are quite effective. SLND could do with more editing and less faffing about — it is enjoyable, but at times tedious.
• Methods and SLND are predictable in different ways. While both delve into love stories, Methods is the more traditional “Ahah! Twist at the end!” sort, whereas SLND is more an exploration on the idea of modern courtly love. And possibly insanity.

Overall, it was a decent night out. I won’t be handing them any awards, but I would still recommend it if you’re looking for a theatre production to layan.

WARNING: Heaps of spoilers ahead! Will ruin surprises in store!
Do not read if you haven’t watched it!

So, that’s probably gonna leave me with just one reader. Here goes:

“Method”, written and directed by Jude James, Adam and Juliet are newly engaged. Juliet meets Cat, an exquisite man, and plans for a dinner for her newfound friend. But Cat has a secret. One that will remind Juliet that love hurts. Real love bleeds.

1) The thing that bedevils promoting a play like Methods is that you can’t say “Some of these characters are gay”, because it ruins the “twist”.

Yet, if you’ve been to enough theatre over the years, never mind all the foreshadowing (including the appearance of mysterious strangers) — purposefully vague writeups and gay-friendly promos are big clues that a twist is coming your way.

Of the twists one could foresee while watching Methods, the Gay Theory pops up fairly quickly. Just sayin’.

2) There’s an energy to Methods I don’t understand — and it is Adam’s relationships.

I’d say Adam and Juliet is a realistic portrayal of an OTT straight relationship — that couple you can’t take seriously and don’t want to hang out with. You expect to see this relationship, especially in college.

Adam and Cat are an OTT portrayal of an unrealistic relationship. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but the effect’s quite jarring la. Can those of the murderous gay literati really date each other? Shouldn’t they have killed each other instead? I hope you don’t have expectations to see this relationship. Even in college.

Like two completely different writers wrote the relationships out. Maybe the actors had a lot of input and I was seeing the resulting differences?

3) I like the song selection.

Briefly talked to the director Jude James after the play. He pretty much said he was happy with the play the way it was, and that I should make of the play whatever I want to. It’s not meant to be very deep*. James has two feature plays coming up. After seeing some of his previous work in Short & Sweet (another one of those “Aiyah, I see the twist” plays), and Methods, I think I can layan his future work. Will try to keep an eye out for them.

Rehearsals for Imports (photo by AJ Ng, taken from Imports event page — click to visit)

“Streetlamp Named Desire”, written by Thomas Pang and directed by Marvin Wong, is a modern day fairytale down to the talking pigeons. The girl of his dreams is moving away; what is a lowly doorman to do?

1) All three actors from Methods are in SLND, along with Clarence Kuna (who plays the doorman).

Gonzalo (who plays Cat in the previous play) is a very experienced actor, and onstage with the other three, it shows. He dominates every scene, and his energy level is quite consistently high. Even as a pigeon that goes off on a Spanish rant every so often over his doorman friend’s awkward attempts at romance.

The others range from average to good, but they do get owned by Gonzalo, who is onstage throughout most of the production. He looks really comfortable onstage. He also kinda looks like you could plonk him in a backpacker’s place (ie: hut by the beach in Koh Lipe, Le Village off Chinatown) and he’d…never leave.

2) This is where I realise the trailer I watched for Imports had very little to do with either play. Also, everyone’s quite good looking.

3) I love the randomness of two talking (opiniated, bossy and manipulative) pigeons that may either be the result of a fantasy world, or a doorman driven mad by tedium and unrequited love.

4) I like the premise more than I like the writing — there were lulls in the play, bits of dialogue that made me impatient/bored.  This script needs an editor, and to borrow less obviously from awkward love stories.

5) Watching the play was like reading a comic book. Like an excerpt from one of the earths in Books of Magic, but far less magical.

6) Being the less rigid of the two, SLND also has the potential to be the much more engaging one. Can’t help but imagine it being better. If it were a bit more inspiring, a bit less lost-puppy, a bit more sinister, much wittier. If only the girl were more interesting to anyone besides the doorman.

SLND needs all the little touches and charms that it has yet to discover.

7) “You guys are assholes” is probably the truest line in Imports.

8) I can totally see how the tagline “Human relationships can require inhuman choices” works for both plays.

Anyway, I think this isn’t the kind of show where you’re supposed to go home and strain your brain trying to figure it out la.

If you decided to read the spoilers before going, don’t worry too much about what I have to say about it: just watch Imports, enjoy, go for mamak afterwards. It’s entertaining — and from what I read on Twitter, I definitely had a much better night than my friends who went to watch Prometheus. Heh.

I’d love to hear further comments from other viewers. Especially since I went on preview night.