(Re)calling mother.

Sat, 1 Aug 2009
3 min read
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The police officers called my home after they couldn’t contact me on my mobile, and as luck would have it, they reached my mother instead.

Now, my mother is prone to over-reacting, and her first thought was to start crying when she heard the words ‘police’ and ‘your son’.

When I called her back to tell her that the police officers had passed my keys to me, I hung up the phone feeling extremely irritated – and for good reason.

I understand why she was upset, but I don’t think it was justified for her to get so upset over something like this. Plus, this isn’t the first time she has over-reacted to something like this, and she has a tendency to overly-dramatise not-so-significant situations. Most importantly, even if the worse had happened, what good would crying do?

I don’t think I’ll be able to tell her this, because she’ll probably over-react while I am trying to explain all this to her. I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to explain all this to her, either.

But what I am going to do is to bring her to watch this play. Hopefully it might open up some space for us to discuss what happened.

Recalling Mother
Presented by Checkpoint Theatre

Dates: Wed, 26 Aug – Sun, 30 Aug 2009.
Time: 8pm – 9pm.
Venue: ARTSPACE@Helutrans (39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark #02-04)

In this funny and moving piece written and performed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed, two women tell stories about two other women – their mothers – and the complexities of living with (and not living with) Mother.

The performers discuss the genesis of the piece:

“Neither of our mothers has much formal education, but they’re both highly intelligent, capable and strong women. Both are wonderful cooks and love to feed us.

“But they find it difficult to talk to us – and we to them. Neither of them is fluent in English. We, on our part, have only functional abilities in our “mother tongues” – Cantonese and Malay, respectively. So, we get by, functionally. But we can’t share our deepest, most complicated thoughts and ideas to our mothers in a common language.

“Yet through our telling and re-telling of stories about our mothers – and about ourselves with our mothers – we discover a kaleidoscope of memories, and of insights into ourselves, and into that strange, complicated and wonderful relationship that we think almost everyone has with their mother.”

Performed in the intimate setting of an art gallery to an audience of just 80 people per night, Recalling Mother is a unique and engaging theatrical experience. Nuanced, compelling, honest and surprising, Recalling Mother is a celebration of the joys and challenges of motherhood – and daughterhood.

Tickets: $28 (excluding SISTIC booking fee).
Discount of 15% for groups of 15 or more.
Buy your tickets starting August 6th through the SISTIC Website: www.sistic.com.sg, the SISTIC Hotline: (65) 6348 5555 or SISTIC Authorized Agents islandwide.

Supported by Valentine Willie Fine Art.

OTOT on Saturday.

Mon, 20 Jul 2009
2 min read
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When I walked into the Drama Centre on Saturday evening, my aunt came up to me with a look of utmost sombreness upon her face and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Aunty Janki’s son is here.”

“Who is Aunty Janki’s son??” I asked.

“The… Kamal,” she said.

“Who’s Kamal???”

Turns out ‘Kamal’ was none other than Kishore Mahbubani, who had come to watch OTOT with his missus, because both their sons were in NS and Mrs M felt that the Ms had to watch OTOT to better understand NS and what their sons were going through.

That’s what I gathered from the Sindhi side of my family who were huddled around me, as they’d also come to watch OTOT as well. Just then, ‘Kamal’ walked by and we talked for a minute or so – I told him that there was going to be “some strong language” in the play; he joked that he was going to leave then.

During the intermission, I joined my family where they were seated, in the middle of the theatre. Coincidentally, Kishore was sitting one row behind us.

He jokingly said that he thought the language wasn’t strong enough. He also added that the French ambassador was around, and was asking what one word in particular meant. No one dared to tell him what it meant in English, but a clever soul told him that the word translated to ‘la chatte’ in French. Nice work, diplomats.

E-mail Interview with Art Jam

Sat, 18 Jul 2009
4 min read
1 Comment

Some answers to the questions posed during a recent e-mail interview with Art Jam, a publication by Nanyang Technological University’s Cultural Activities Club. If you scroll all the way down, you can find an embedded PDF of the magazine for your reading pleasure.

  1. Back by popular demand! Wow! ArtJam congratulates you. How does it feel to make such a comeback?

    It feels great to be staged again, and I’m glad to have an opportunity to work with such talented thespians in the creative team, cast and crew.

  2. Even though the times have changed, the topic on NS never fails to fall far from the conversation when guys gather together. Why do boys always talk so happily about NS?

    National Service is a shared experience for the majority of Singaporean men.

    Full-time National Servicemen (NSF) talk happily about NS because they have no choice; it is their life, so there are only these experiences to talk about.

    Operationally-Ready NSmen talk about NS because it provides a sense of nostalgia for them and allows them to bond over this shared experience.

  3. Full Tank! sounds like great fun. Why did you choose to write a play about army boys going AWOL?

    The original concept for Full Tank! sprung from the story of Corporal Dave Teo Ming, the soldier who absconded from his camp with a SAR21.

    Many people, from netizens to Members of Parliament, were asking questions like: “Why was security so lax?”, “How could this have happened?”, and “What action will be taken to prevent this from happening again?”

    I felt that the questions that should have been asked instead were: “Is Dave okay?”, “Could the military environment have exacerbated his condition?” and “Is there anyone else like him who is at risk of engaging in this behaviour, and if yes, how can we help them?”

    I hope Full Tank! will provide the space within which we can discuss these issues so that we can carry on with our transformation into a more caring society.

  4. In what way has writing about NS allowed you to reflect on your personal army days? And what has NS imprint on you that you perhaps may have used in your pieces?

    My Full-time National Service (NSF) was one of the best experiences of my life.

    I learnt a lot about administration, management, organisation, fitness, etc. while in service, and met some very interesting characters along the way.

    Nevertheless, I also had my fair share of frustrations such as having to stay back on weekends for duties and ‘burning’ public holidays for extra duties, so there were unhappy moments too.

    I went through the entire spectrum of NSF ranks – I was a Recruit, Private, Corporal, Third Sergeant and Officer Cadet before finally commissioning as a Second Lieutenant.

    That, coupled with the fact that my various postings to different units required me to constantly utilise different skill sets, resulted in a very challenging two and a half years for me.

    But it also meant that I saw many things that most people would never get a chance to see.

    This alternative perspective has a part to play in why I have chosen to write about NS in Singapore: while I fully understand the importance of NS to Singapore, I have also managed to get a glimpse of the tiresome yet comical aspect of military bureaucracy from various angles, along with the segments of military life that seem really absurd in both the original and the philosophical senses of the word.

    I feel it necessary to juxtapose these tensions dramatically in order to highlight little known facets of the Singapore military to society at large, as part of my outlook on education and how it should also seek to provide different points of view for and from as many people as possible.

    The style and tone of the absurd exchanges in ‘Full Tank’ have been culled from my own experiences with the bureaucracy and social rituals of the military.

    At the same time, the comedy, camaraderie and warmth of the characters is something I have also experienced during my National Service.