Unlike Some People

Why is staging a production like Unlike Some People relevant to Singaporeans?
It is both relevant and important, I feel. It is relevant because it probes universal concerns like loyalty between friends, pacts between lovers and coping with loss. It is important because it embodies a standard of writing that I hope will challenge us to ask more of our drama – as audiences and as practitioners. The sheer craft and the power of Albee’s writing should inspire us to create works that capture us as truly and stir us as deeply.

Your previous plays were very local, how did you end up with an Edward Albee play?
You’ll be surprised how globally familiar the American idiom has become, thanks to Hollywood and American TV. On top of that, Albee’s play is remarkably accessible because its intensely personal themes and issues transcend culture immediately, and reflect the audience’s own experience quite vividly. Some trial audiences have expressed surprise at how quickly these ‘foreign’ characters became so alike to their own circle of friends.

Unlike Some People revolves around the lives of three couples, so what were you looking for in terms of character chemistry during casting?
The young & W!ld actors have been training as an ensemble, and have developed a remarkably fluid chemistry with each other – which made it harder to pair them up because practically any combination was potentially exciting! So instead I focused on the chemistry between actors and their characters – searching for life experiences that would enable them to understand specific characters more deeply. The resultant pairing is exciting because the couples are what I call ‘perversely well matched’ – they are so mismatched because of certain stubborn traits, yet they so deserve each other. That makes for a pretty wild night of unexpected twists and turns!

This is the second production by Young & W!ld. What challenges did you face?
Albee’s writing is very layered and very sophisticated, much more so than anything these young actors have handled before. The greatest challenge has been taking the text apart and analysing all its complexities, and then ‘owning’ it as effortlessly as possible. In Family, ten actors played almost forty characters – but in this play, it was about digging deeper and deeper into their one character each and sustaining and developing it – it may sound like a no-brainer but it’s really a much harder task for an actor.

What kind of responses are you expecting from your audience?
I hope the audience will let the play take them on its unique journey – surprise them, provoke them, shock them and ultimately, touch them. I hope they will walk away asking themselves if they have friends like this; if they have been friends like this; if they have betrayed or been betrayed like this; and if their spouses will make such terrible sacrifices for them. This play really provokes us to think deeply about what a real friendship is worth when things get really tough, and what the true contract between husband and wife really is, when the chips are down. And I hope that after watching, they will tell their friends about the show but not reveal the terrible secret at the core of the play – it’s a surprise that Albee wants to spring on the audience only during the play, and prior knowledge would sabotage that thrilling explosion!

The three couples in this play are all facing issues that are fuelled by alcohol. Do you think alcohol abuse is a problem that directly affects Singaporeans?
Not so much ‘fuelled’ by alcohol as it is ‘lubricated’ by it. The alcohol loosens their tongues and dissolves their inhibitions, allowing long-harboured resentments to rise to the surface, and buried secrets to rear their ugly heads. Like many people, Singaporean boozers included, these characters don’t abuse alcohol – they abuse each other with alcohol as an excuse.

After this production, what can we expect to see from you on the local theatre scene?
I’ll be working in Mandarin next – as one of the three resident directors in the Theatre Practice’s Playwrights’ Boot Camp, where each Monday, we have only six hours to cast and fully rehearse a freshly written ten-minute play, to be performed for an audience that very night! After that, I’ll be working on a new instalment of the cabaret Broadway 4 Suakus for Valentine’s Day next year and reviving H Is for Hantu, my kampong comedy musical featuring ghostly puppets! Interview by Jonathan Arrowood