【講座稿】：Ah, How Do We Talk About Plays?

Picture taken during “Off Centre”, a theatre production by The Necessary Stage, Feb 2019.

@Thea.preter

I am part of the theatre reviewers team, we call ourselves “Thea.preter”; and in Chinese, “剧读”.

We studied in NTU, majored in Chinese, and we are from different batches. We did not have any formal training in theatre review, yet we came together because all of us love watching theatre shows.

We set up a blog, and now we have a Facebook, and soon we will have an Instagram platform. We also write theatre reviews and send them to Lianhe Zaobao to be publish.

As of now we have published more than 80 reviews, both on our blog and on Lianhe Zaobao. And we are still learning how to review theatre shows, learning the art of critiquing, and even learning how to watch theatre performances.

Our medium of expression is in Chinese. We write all our critiques in Chinese, but we also critique English theatre shows, even Malay language theatre performances.

One good thing about being in a team, is that we get to read each other’s reviews, and we get to learn from each other. So I learn that this certain reviewer tend to talk about her personal feelings towards the play; that reviewer tends to analyse the signifiers in the play, and make sense of it; that reviewer tends to ask questions that are related to the messages of the play.. and so on. Interestingly, none of us like to give stars (2 out of 5 stars, 7 out of 10 stars etc). How can we grade art? And why should we do that?

Reviewer As A 2-way Bridge

Personally, I started reviewing when Centre 42 was looking for Chinese reviewers as well as English reviewers. That was in 2016. It was very timely for me— at that time I noticed a lack in Chinese reviewers in the theatre ecosystem. So I signed up for it, hoping to learn the art of reviewing.

I remembered the first thing I learnt on the Centre 42 reviewers platform was: Do not describe the whole play! They also set a rule: You are only allowed to review in 500 words.

It was very good training for young reviewers. With these perimeters, you have to choose and decide: What is that one thing that you really want to share with that audience? Which in turn makes you think: What is that most crucial thing to talk about? Do you want to talk about the set, the light, the acting, everything? Do you want to talk about the story? Would you like to talk about the theatre company, or just your feelings about the show? What do you want to contribute to the theatre-makers?

See, as a reviewer, I realise that I am very much a part of the theatre ecosystem. Theatre-makers will read my review. They will learn from it. So I better be able to give them something useful, if not they will simply just take a one-liner from the entire review and use it on their publicity material. Or worse, ignore it.

As part of the theatre ecosystem, a reviewer has the responsibility to inform the theatre makers of their work. They say that the director is the first audience of a play. Then in a sense, the reviewer is speaking on behalf of the audience.

Yet at the same time, the reviewer is also asking the readers questions. The reviewer is providing different points of view for the audiences who have watched the play. The reviewer is also allowing readers who did not watch the play to understand what the artist wants the world to hear.

So in a way, the reviewer is always building a two-way bridge: the reviewer bridges the theatre-maker to the audience, and vice-versa.

Post-Show Talk: A Platform To Share

A post-show talk is an extremely important platform for conversations to happen. Audiences get to talk to the creators, either to understand more about the play, or to share their thoughts and feelings. It’s highly volatile, anything can happen. Yet beautiful discoveries can be made.

I remember in 2012, when Drama Box together with Zuni Icosahedron from Hong Kong, presented “One Hundred Years of Solitude 10.0- Cultural Revolution”. It was performed completely without dialogue. Very cutting-edge, full of signifiers, filled with movements, images, and sounds, and a wonderful clash of cultures.

However, the post-show talk was a heated one. Audiences grabbed the mic and angrily questioned why the show was put up. Interestingly, the post-show moderator, Kok Heng Leun, did not give his answer immediately. Instead he asked the audiences, “Will anyone like to respond to that?”

So audiences kept talking about how they hated the show, and the creators listened. But somehow, things changed. Gradually they started to articulate why they hated the performance. Then one audience responded, “I don’t understand this piece of work, but I feel that watching this show is important for me, because now I am able to add on to my theatre-watching experience... So that next time, I will have more vocabularies to understand the theatre plays.”

So some audiences agreed, too, and gradually the audiences started to talk about what they saw on stage, how it made them feel… And then the artists started to engage, and more discoveries were made. After that post-show talk, Drama Box actually organised a post post-show talk, inviting audiences to their theatre company, to learn more about the play.

That post-show talk became a play in itself. It became the Act 2 of the play. It was a “cultural revolution”.

Tools and Vocabularies

Artists have different set of tools to help them express their view of the world. Audience needs tools and vocabularies to talk about shows, too.

The only not-so-ideal thing about post-show talks is that everyone needs time to process the show, and there may be some ideas that you may not be able to articulate clearly, having just watch the show. Then you speak, but then you go home and you thought “Ah! I should have said it like that!” Sometimes I dream that there can be online forum after every production, so that the audience and the creators can just meet online and talk about shows.

Have you heard of “PLUNGE”? The full name is “Plunge: New Ways to Talk About Theatre”. It is a “post-show discussion facilitated by reviewers. This is a platform to bring people together to share their post-show musings in a casual and informal way. We are here to share our perceptions and interpretations of theatre so that we can become more aware of what a performance is about. Join us every last weekend of the month to deconstruct a theatre piece to make meaning for yourself”.

I did not have a chance yet to attend. But it is such a great initiative to get people to talk to each other. There was a “PLUNGE” event at the Arts House earlier this year, and the moderators Max Yam and Sam Kee took me on a tour before the event start in the evening. They transformed the space into a kind of comfortable living room with chairs and cushions. There were corners where you can leave comments and reviews on a small post-it notes. There were questions posted for you to think about. It was amazing. These people are getting people together to talk, so that we gain more vocabularies for talking about shows. And then ideas can be develop and destroy, learn and un-learn. And this is how we grow.

This is why I keep using the term “theatre ecosystem”, instead of “theatre industry”. Because an ecosystem grows with each other, while an industry consumes for its own growth.

Nine Years Theatre has been holding it’s own post-show talk for the past 6 years. They call it a “Drink and Talk” session, usually conducted outside the theatre space. The audiences can drink tea or wine, eat tidbits. They can choose to stay or leave, they can choose to engage, or to just listen. Now, without stage light, and without the obvious boundary between the stage and the audience, and with the slight high that alcohol could bring, the theatre company hopes to engage the audience so that theatre does not just become a product to be consume.

What Matters?

I wonder who said this: “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”. We may all watch the same play, but we interpret it according to our culture, beliefs, life experiences, aesthetics... which are all different.

So share your views generously, and be curious about other people’s interpretations. I think the most beautiful thing about theatre is how sometimes your world view(s) can crumble, and out of it something new and exciting and vulnerable can emerge.

And as a reviewer, be responsible! Because theatre is ephemeral, twenty years later someone will have to depend on your critique to understand what the artists of our times are saying. Your words carry weights.

How do we talk about plays? By coming together with the understanding: “Let’s grow together”.

-Nov 2019