It was kind of no-brainer to decide on catching ’11 and 12′ … after all, it is by Peter Brook. It is THE performance in this year’s arts festival offering which prompted me to book tickets early as I was so afraid of not getting one.
After all, it is Peter Brook.
One of the living masters in theatre world. One who gave us the Le Costume many years ago in Singapore Arts Festival and mesmerised the whole audience (ok, I should only speak for myself but almost everyone I managed to speak to and who had seen it, agreed).
But when I ran into some friends from theatre while catching performances prior to this one, I had already received some murmuring that ‘this Peter Brook’s production is not so good’.
I remained skeptical about this comment and defended it quietly in my mind that ‘maybe everyone has been expecting another Le Costume’, which would be a hard act to pull off.
With an already lowered expectation when I stepped into the theatre, by the time I stepped out of Drama Centre theatre, I was still amazed by the number of times I dozed off during the show. Was I that tired? I asked myself. I only slept for less than 5 hours after staying awake for the entire night in a temple for Vesak day celebration, on the previous night.
I ran into J outside of the theatre. She was so awed by the play on the opening night that she came back to catch it for the second time. I tweeted about my doubt and later Z responded to say she found the play was ‘SIMPLY GOOD’. C who watched the same show as I did but sat in second row (i was in second or third last row), declared in his FB status that he loved it (in many more words).
The style of the set design was not unlike that of Le Costume – simple, bare, with minimum number of props. The flashing out of episodes of the story was also in similar form – using narrations to switch from scenes to scenes. M told me she liked the scene where an actor turned into a mother and the other scene where two actors transformed a piece of cloth into boat. Yes, I liked that too. Le Costume was full of that kind of magic.
That’s where the similarities ended. Le Costume was evident in richness of imagination – from the casts in how they transformed the simple set into lively scenes (inside and outside of a house. remember the bus scene?), which in turns instill the joy of imagination to the audience. Because we saw what the cast saw. And so, the story was delivered to us as if we had seen it unfolded in front of us.
But in 11 or 12, besides the 2 scenes that M liked, most part of the story felt like story-telling, literally. Most part of the story was ‘told’ via the discussion, conversation, debates among characters. Was it the director? Was it the cast? Or was it the script? I just could not find the dramatic actions … oh, there were not meant to be any?
So i lost my concentration, which my lack of sleep did not quite help. But mainly because in recently years I have developed the habit of switching-off to ‘hearing’ a story inside a theatre. I prefer my eyes work harder than my ears. (For those who need to know what ’11 and 12′ was about, story wise, I’ve found this review online honest enough to worth your time).
I remember telling a friend that it was kind of a de javu for me when I watched Stan Lai’s 如影随行 … i kept asking myself how could this be from the same director who gave us 暗恋桃花源?
But maybe it is a necessary or inevitable phase for all artists, master or otherwise. They move. And their work speak to different audience at different time. I had this thought when I read Sy Ren’s observation of the post-show talk of 11 or 12 in Paris.
Le Costume spoke to me. Just like 暗恋桃花源 did.
But 11 and 12 did not.
