’Walking In Beauty’

(Image from the festival website.)

Dithered over tickets to Petrina Kow’s ‘Walking In Beauty’ presented at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. I knew it was a sterling cast, but what I was hesitant about, its content. I knew what it would touch on. It’s a little too heavy, and too real. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sit through it.

Six beautiful women. Whose names you would know. Whose wonderful personalities you might be so lucky to be acquainted with. You might also have heard their stories. But nothing makes it as powerful as hearing it in a compact form on stage, together, in a flow that unmistakably celebrates women and their strength.

Arianna Pozzuoli, Deborah Emmanuel, Oniatta Effendi, Anita Kapoor, Frances Lee, and Dr Uma Rajan. Each woman shared their story. Funny, light-hearted, self-doubt, pain, regret, sorrow, of losses, strained relationships, controversy, etc. I won’t go into the details of what each woman shared, sufficed that it’s something personal, perhaps an open secret, but not quite talked about or discussed with people often, Petrina did an excellent job themeweaving the six stories together. (More information on the content here and here.)

It was a sensitive, nuanced and touching performance. I appreciated it, but I didn’t enjoy it. I’m not comfortable with this genre of shows. In fact, I wrote this post much much later because I didn’t want to have to think about it again, or explore deeper within the self. How many of us like what we see when the mirror is held up? I didn’t identify very much with any of their stories. There isn’t a need to. This is the beauty of being human, to be different, to be our own, to be me. It was a good show, and perhaps that is exactly what it hopes to achieve- to stir up thoughts and conversations.