Cooling-Off Day

Didn't watch Alfian Saat's 'Cooling-Off Day' last August. Glad that they did a re-run, with a slight toggling of chairs at the end. :) Presented by Wild Rice, Janice Koh replaces Tan Kheng Hua in this run. The friends who caught the previous run and also sat with me last night, commented that edits have been done to tightened the play. The cast of 6 on stage filled it up and held audience attention for the 2 hours. Peter Sau and Najib Soiman are hilarious! (Read reviews of the last run here, here and here.)

Not much of a narrative in this play, although the playwright's political leaning and emphasis comes across fairly strongly in the play. It's stringed together in chronological order perhaps, lending dimension to the voices on the ground and the thoughts of the interviewed 60 humans aged 17 - 72. It deftly hops across race issues, community (Easties and Westies!) and age. Which is the point of the furious private discussions on Cooling-Off Day, and the audiences were left to make their own judgments.

Did the play provide an area for strong political discourse? No. The jokes were good, but mainly gleaned from internet. A bit of a same-old same-old feeling. But not as bad as the re-hashed jokes from other plays. Singaporeans and interested PRs will be able to catch all the inferences and jokes. Did the strong acting and words provide food for thought as I walked out of the theatre? No. But the fact that such a play is allowed to be stage, is already a miracle by itself amidst defamation suits and a calmly suspicious political climate.

Must have been overt influences at play (pun fully intended). We trooped off to Geylang for more conversation over a supper of fairly satisfying Teochew porridge.