OTOT on Saturday.

Mon, 20 Jul 2009
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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
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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.

From a conversation Julian Wong and I were having.

Tue, 7 Jul 2009
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We were discussing our annoyance at how people relentlessly compare OTOT to Army Daze, which is, in our humble opinion, missing the forest for the trees.

~

Julian: …I guess people use the Army Daze thing because they have nothing to compare it to. If someone else wrote a play about transsexuals, the audience might compare it to Private Parts too.

Laremy: That’s true. People are always looking for familiarity and something to relate to so they can make sense of the world. Hence the use of stereotypes, which we are both also guilty of using in our plays… Hehe 🙂

Julian: But as a friend of mine said, there is space in the hearts of most people here to accept another play about the NS experience. If people can’t open their hearts and minds enough to accept that OTOT is different, then they’re missing out on a lot.

NS is experienced by every person here (for every guy that enlists, his whole family and circle of friends go through it with him in their own way) – surely it deserves to be shared and celebrated in more ways and more plays than Army Daze!

P. S. If we’re getting this comparison now, think how terrible it must be for the next person who comes along and writes something about NS!