Rant & Rave. Photo courtesy of The Esplanade.

Of the four ticketed events I caught under the Esplanade’s anniversary weekend programme, I noticed something. While all four were various forms of “tributes”, there’s a slight difference in approach. The sole dance show, SideBySide, was a selection of new creations, as in “we’re commissioning you to do something new”. Is it because it's arguably a less popular/developed/supported and smaller scene so that really, at this point, the most important thing is to push for more works? Because in contrast, the three other pieces that dealt with theatre were completely framed by and oozed with its very history. They formed a kind of trilogy, too. If the Singapore Musical was what National Broadway Company was about, its two smaller siblings, Casting Back and Rant & Rave offered a more lowkey but nonetheless equally satisfying look at The Actor and The Discourse, respectively. All of them draw on one single source, of course, but I’ve said my piece re: NBC and besides, the two Theatre Studio shows have their own complementary thing going on, too. Both two-handers, Nora Samosir and Christina Sergeant took on director Casey Lim and playwright Robin Loon’s Casting Back, while it was Janice Koh and Siti Kalijah for Chong Tze Chien’s Rant & Rave.

Non-veterans Nora Samosir and Christina Sergeant in Casting Back. Photo courtesy of The Esplanade. The former was almost a casual, breezy affair with, erm, established actors (don’t tell anyone but they hate being described as “veterans”) Samosir and Sergeant taking us through their careers in a show that is, as they insist, not a retrospective, not a lecture not, not a mime and not—ahem—a lecture performance. Rather, it’s an invitation of sorts for the audience to do the remembering with/for them as they feed us with amusing or poignant little nuggets from their past—from Samosir’s “very vocal disagreement with Keng Sen” to Sergeant talking of her experiences with the theatre group STARS. They quiz each other on which venues they’ve performed in, assess their own performances and take jibes at press reviews. They perform snippets from previous productions, we see a grainy video of Samosir in an old TheatreWorks production, witness Sergeant enacting an video interview by a pesky interviewee asking her perennial questions about her presence in Singapore theatre (even though she’s been here for ages—sorry, I meant for a substantial length of time). All of these are thrown in the mix as things go back and forth—memory, after all, is a tricky animal, and certain moments conjure unexpected emotions and images. Recalling a past work, Samosir remembers, instead, the late Emma Yong. When asked about a particular venue, Sergeant remembers not the play she was watching but news regarding the arrest of members of The Third Stage during the so-called “Marxist Plot” crackdown in the late `80s. It’s still a performance, of course, and not a show-and-tell moment: these are snuck in-between Loon’s Calvino-esque fantastical allegory about two people who strike out on a sea voyage, encountering amnesiacs and an elusive island, before realizing they never really left. (Loved Lim’s set, by the way, peppering the space with speakers that served as both islands and the performers’ seats). Read into it what you will: the never-ending, tedious cyclical journey of the Actor, of Singapore’s theatre scene, of Singapore itself—Casting Back was a small charming piece in line with the weekend’s feel good atmosphere.

Janice Koh and Siti Khalijah in Rant & Rave. Photo courtesy of The Esplanade. In contrast to the let’s chill-out-put-our-feet-up-and-learn-a-thing-or-two vibe of that one, Rant & Rave was the hyperactive, nerdy twin. Which, I guess, can’t be helped considering it’s essentially a crash course on theatre discourse in Singapore. It wasn’t, as I somehow mistakenly assumed, a roast with the spotlight on theatre reviewers. It’s really—in contrast to the very personal oral history mode of CB—a condensed chronicle of Singapore theatre’s rocky road through the printed word. Chong essentially compiled and arranged newspaper reports, quotes, reviews, the people behind this mass jumble of words—journalists, government officials, artists, the public—brought to life by Koh and Siti in a flurry of impersonations. Yep, compared to NBC, this qualifies as such—and it’s a hoot seeing them do folks like George Yeo, Margaret Chan, Ong Keng Sen, Alvin Tan, T Sasitharan, Kuo Pao Kun, and, for some reason, a certain RAT (Do I really come across as an eager-beaver schoolboy?!). While it was quite hilarious—props to both actresses—the tongue-in-cheek performances initially threatened to overshadow the piece itself, with its barrage of projected quotes and dialogue. But you eventually get the hang of it and so journey through history. Which, to be honest, is simply that. The fact that it all sounds familiar is because, well, it’s official. They don’t call ST (from which a great bulk of the text is from) the newspaper of record for nothing. Which actually, makes me feel a bit uneasy. The arc of issues and debates from the `60s to the present -- about what exactly constitutes Singapore theatre, the whole Singlish versus English, who or what “represents” true local theatre, the accents, the funding, the censorship, the love-hate relationship between theatre and media – that is conveyed through the printed word is so monolithic compared to the devil may care, personal, oral history in Casting Back. That said, it’s pretty obvious why having a properly archived history (and digging it up again) is important: it’s so we don’t forget. And in the process realise that even as theatre (as reported by the media) has undoubtedly evolved, some things stay the same. Debates, reviews, even quotes, from back in the `90s and `80s sound like something from five years ago or even last year. We’re still talking about funding, Singlish is still a point of contention, censorship still happens. Ong Keng Sen’s quotes explaining his experimental phase, the anti-intellectualism from the public and press from the 90s—he still has to repeat that today and you still get anti-intellectual responses from the public and the media. The trauma of the performance art/forum theatre debacle back then has still not completely healed. Of course, there are some things that you wish hadn’t changed. I am still in awe (and deeply envious) of T Sasitharan-the-journalist and Tan Tarn How-the-journalist’s powerful, poetic and brave writing. And, sentimentality aside, one wonders what incisive things Kuo Pao Kun would say about MBS or Art Stage or yes, even the Esplanade’s 10th anniversary, if he were still here today. (On another note, I have to bring up what was to me, a surprisingly constant presence throughout R&R—Robert Yeo. I’ve always respected and admired the man, and I thought it was great that he was a recurring voice throughout. He may be from an older generation that doesn’t get as much buzz or recognition among younger theatre peeps, but his quotes advocating open-mindedness and words of encouragement to embrace and support the new is something that continues to resonate.) And what of theatre critics? As interesting as it was to someone like me (who writes reviews and stuff) to see how the role has changed with the times (or not), it's pretty clear that they’re not the only ones doing the ranting and raving in this sometimes crazy collective conversation we all have about Singapore theatre.  To which I say: Word.