 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Xiang Ying 2005
went down to NAFA theatre and watch Xiang Ying 2005, the annual chinese drama production for Anglican High. jio-ed dylan to go wif me since i was forced to buy one tic when i'm given one.
supposed to meet dylan at bugis mrt, but while i was there, saw *gasp* shunxiang and both of us were shocked to see each other. third time in a row in three days. "we might as well get attached to each other now!" he said. *no no~*
anyway, dylan was ultra late (as usual), so we had to settle a quick prata dinner and rush over to nafa theatre.
Xiang Ying 2005. it's not the first time i'm going for AHS drama fest, and the prev time i went, i enjoyed myself. this time round, well, there are more plays, but the quality of the students' play were not as well done as the alumnis'.
firstly, the emcees. i didn't really like their performance for all four plays. there was this chinese girl which was speaking in a weird chinese accent, ie, a singaporean girl trying desperately to sound like a china girl, with all her words sounding monotonously high pitch. irritating~ the guy was not really good looking, and yet they kept coming up with ideas that require the guy to be handsome and arrogant. hello~ it doesn't just work for an actor to suddenly become handsome because another actress comment he is one?
the first play Shun Meng Yuan (loosely translated as "The Dream Finding Garden") was intended to be a slapstick. it turned out that the director went overboard with his ideas and the whole play turned out to be aimless and no brainer. the acting was bad, esp by the witch and the teacher. then, the rest of the cast, gosh~ they found a nerd to play the role of a hipster. *shake head* not a good start to the night. and the play ended abruptly without a very clear message of what the play wanted to convey.
next play Na Yi Ye ("That Night") was a very simple nice collage of lives of different ppl late in the night at a bus stop. the acting was nice, not too outrageous and it was all quite natural. i enjoyed it.
Ye Chang Meng Duo ("The Long Night With Many Dreams"). an alumni play which shone, conveying a message lots of ppl around the age of 20 will be most acquinted with. years after graduating from a school, and finally you're forced to go back and relive the memories. a very straightforward play with many messages to convey. It didn't really had a good script to begin with (being the sound designer, i had the luxury of reading the first draft) and i tot it required a very good cast, but the director (dear mr zou wensen) and the cast managed to pull it off very beautifully. in fact, the first time i watched the rehearsal, i was moved and touched. and it still touched my heart today as i watched it for the second time. another aspect was how interesting wensen's direction is, directing a play with a very serious message, yet reliving the tension every now and then with right-on-the-beat humour, and yet at the same time, engaging the audience in the emotional ups-and-downs of the roles in the play.
Quan Min Lian Ai ("Let Us All Fall In Love") Please don't scold me for the bad translation. According to wensen, yuneng likes to play around with ideas and produce a comedy with quite dark ideas. well, sad to say, this play isn't one of them. it felt like a collage of parodies that lumped themselves unnaturally into a play. altho there were indeed outrageously humourous moments, like the Ai He Niang Niang dressed in Nv Wa clothes, forcing the main couple to engage in a stupid game, the whole play felt fractured and directionless. The theme felt awkwardly pretentious and there were moments unnecessary. even the cast felt so, being lost at times with what they were doing and what their objectives were. in the end, the final tension and contradiction did not manage to resolve nicely. the only thing memorable from the play were the performances by the three pointless biatches appearing now and then like Scratch in Ice Age.
i did enjoy myself, esp when the emcee announced my name during the thank list. ARGH~! damn BHB~ cannot make it. haha~
*blushing*,
Johnzzon
supposed to meet dylan at bugis mrt, but while i was there, saw *gasp* shunxiang and both of us were shocked to see each other. third time in a row in three days. "we might as well get attached to each other now!" he said. *no no~*
anyway, dylan was ultra late (as usual), so we had to settle a quick prata dinner and rush over to nafa theatre.
Xiang Ying 2005. it's not the first time i'm going for AHS drama fest, and the prev time i went, i enjoyed myself. this time round, well, there are more plays, but the quality of the students' play were not as well done as the alumnis'.
firstly, the emcees. i didn't really like their performance for all four plays. there was this chinese girl which was speaking in a weird chinese accent, ie, a singaporean girl trying desperately to sound like a china girl, with all her words sounding monotonously high pitch. irritating~ the guy was not really good looking, and yet they kept coming up with ideas that require the guy to be handsome and arrogant. hello~ it doesn't just work for an actor to suddenly become handsome because another actress comment he is one?
the first play Shun Meng Yuan (loosely translated as "The Dream Finding Garden") was intended to be a slapstick. it turned out that the director went overboard with his ideas and the whole play turned out to be aimless and no brainer. the acting was bad, esp by the witch and the teacher. then, the rest of the cast, gosh~ they found a nerd to play the role of a hipster. *shake head* not a good start to the night. and the play ended abruptly without a very clear message of what the play wanted to convey.
next play Na Yi Ye ("That Night") was a very simple nice collage of lives of different ppl late in the night at a bus stop. the acting was nice, not too outrageous and it was all quite natural. i enjoyed it.
Ye Chang Meng Duo ("The Long Night With Many Dreams"). an alumni play which shone, conveying a message lots of ppl around the age of 20 will be most acquinted with. years after graduating from a school, and finally you're forced to go back and relive the memories. a very straightforward play with many messages to convey. It didn't really had a good script to begin with (being the sound designer, i had the luxury of reading the first draft) and i tot it required a very good cast, but the director (dear mr zou wensen) and the cast managed to pull it off very beautifully. in fact, the first time i watched the rehearsal, i was moved and touched. and it still touched my heart today as i watched it for the second time. another aspect was how interesting wensen's direction is, directing a play with a very serious message, yet reliving the tension every now and then with right-on-the-beat humour, and yet at the same time, engaging the audience in the emotional ups-and-downs of the roles in the play.
Quan Min Lian Ai ("Let Us All Fall In Love") Please don't scold me for the bad translation. According to wensen, yuneng likes to play around with ideas and produce a comedy with quite dark ideas. well, sad to say, this play isn't one of them. it felt like a collage of parodies that lumped themselves unnaturally into a play. altho there were indeed outrageously humourous moments, like the Ai He Niang Niang dressed in Nv Wa clothes, forcing the main couple to engage in a stupid game, the whole play felt fractured and directionless. The theme felt awkwardly pretentious and there were moments unnecessary. even the cast felt so, being lost at times with what they were doing and what their objectives were. in the end, the final tension and contradiction did not manage to resolve nicely. the only thing memorable from the play were the performances by the three pointless biatches appearing now and then like Scratch in Ice Age.
i did enjoy myself, esp when the emcee announced my name during the thank list. ARGH~! damn BHB~ cannot make it. haha~
*blushing*,
Johnzzon
