Local theatre’s buzz-themes of the week? Racism and language. Yesiree, there’s The Necessary Stage’s Model Citizens (of which my review/thoughts comes out in tomorrow’s paper – ah fine, I loved it) and Toy Factory’s To Kill A Mockingbird (which my colleague Showbiz Sista saw last week and wasn’t impressed). Me, I just came back from it and I didn’t think it was that bad – I was sort of okay with it and some moments were gripping. Loved the set design – the stools were the s**t (cough cough) and the overhead mics were awesome (I’m assuming sound designer Darren Ng had a great part in it and utilized it to the max – and it was a very ingenuous way of integrating it as an added visual component). So yes, racial tension in its different clashes by way of the colour wheel (Harper Lee’s black and white, Haresh and Alvin’s yellow and brown. Hee.) and language issues (TNS’ polyglot production that was damn brave in just spelling out the whole Mandarin language issue – and all its historical/political baggage – to people just in case they were, well, colour blind or just refuse to publicly acknowledge its existence. If anything, it said what needed to be said in the open.). As for Mockingbird’s language themes? Hmm, let’s just say it was more confusing than being in a bar called Babel at 11pm on a Friday night. Or listening to Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter. I.e. too many confusing accents. No need lah. Just stick to a decent, consistent one (consistent for the whole cast). And, you know, trust your audiences a bit more to know it’s set in the South. I was thinking of more things to bring up (such as how, despite loving Model Citizens more than Mockingbird, I do think the latter’s a more vicious play – two people killed, no. Model Citizens only got one person stabbed!) but have lost my train of thought while multi-tasking (I was chatting with a Filipino art curator). So… night!