Pangdemonium's 'Frozen'

Made it back to catch the last of Pangdemonium's 'Frozen', adapted from Bryony Lavery's 1998 script which ran into a ton of controversy amidst accusations of plagiarism a few years ago. Set in present-day England, the play addressing dark themes of the human mind and brain.

A mother's grief at her 10-year old daughter's disappearance, Rhona. Karen Tan convincingly plays the grieving mother, Nancy, who found answers after two decades. Adrian Pang played serial killer and pedophile Ralph to chilling perfection. Monologues. The characters were not in direct contact with each other till much later. We traced Nancy and Ralph's lives in the 90s through to present day. Their lives were connected present-day via American criminal psychiatrist Agnetha, portrayed by Janice Koh. Finally the grieving mother met her daughter's incacerated tormentor and killer, and eventually decided she would forgive him.

No blood, no knife, nothing. The action was all in the words and the knowledge of the committed crimes and deeds. The actors were good. Strong portrayal of the characters. However, the accents threw me off and were a bit disturbing. If the accents were meant to indicate cities and countries or perhaps nationalities, I felt it was unnecessary. After a while, I forgot where they lived, never mind the projection of a polaroid to indicate time and place. :P Through the use of little girls' frocks hanging eerily in mid-air and the four platforms to demarcate time and scenes, set designer Eucien Chia and lighting designer James Tan created that intersection in which the characters' lives ultimately intertwine.

There's this idea, of a stance 'born evil' or 'made'. Of baggage, burdens, pain, closure, guilt and forgiveness. We learnt that a young Ralph was abused by his stepfather. It was suggested that he carried the emotional baggage from childhood and pyschological damage and scars which led to his adult dysfunctionality around young girls. After a visit from Nancy, Ralph committed suicide. It was suggested that he finally understood how he had hurt the girls and their families, and he couldn't deal with the overwhelming guilt and remorse. Then there's the other arc of Agnetha's personal demons. Frankly I didn't care. Is that crime worse than Ralph's? How does one even begin to compare?

Many emotions going on. The play doesn't justify the crime committed. It presents several sides and layers to the characters in the play. Yet as an audience, I felt remote from it. Bit of sympathy, but I couldn't empathize. Couldn't say the play wasn't compelling. It could be too stark and real till the auto-reflex mechanism kicked in to compartmentalize it to somewhere distant. Either I don't have the maturity or life experiences to feel something.