PUBLISHED July 11th, 2017 07:00 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 02:58 pm
Put a bunch of Singaporean guys together and sooner or later, they’re bound to talk about their experiences during National Service – two years of compulsory military training upon completing their tertiary education – or gripe about reservist training. These topics form a bond in the same way mothers might talk about the pains of pregnancy. A rite of passage, if you must.
Checkpoint Theatre tells the stories of these men in FRAGO, a new play by the organisation’s Associate Artist, Lucas Ho. Directed by Checkpoint Theatre’s artistic director, Huzir Sulaiman, the play revolves around a group of army mates in an armoured infantry unit returning for a war game exercise in their seventh year of reservist training.
In between the periods of waiting, their thoughts drift to their relationships, jobs, new-born babies and ageing parents as the demands of the outside world intrude in. They begin to wrestle with what it means to step up and be an ‘adult’, as the play examines the complex pleasures of brotherhood, triumph and disappointment on the battlefield for Singaporean men.
Starring an ensemble of 11 actors who paint the vivid world of the army at its most honest, we had the opportunity to speak to three cast members (Ali Anwar, Cerys Ong and Chong Woon Yong), as well as playwright Lucas Ho to learn more.
Who do you play and tell us about your character.
Ali Anwar: I play Benedict Teo. He’s witty, instinctive, and sensitive, but also someone who doesn’t want people to see how scared, sad and lonely he is. Often, we see him use his quick thinking to change topics of conversation or divert the attention away from himself. It’s how he bottles up his true emotions – and in FRAGO, we see that bottle about to crack.
Cerys: I play Wan Qing, the girlfriend of one of the commanders in the play. She is 29, which is when she is forced to make difficult decisions about milestones like marriage. She is an ‘outsider’ to NS, and represents our everyday life and desires against it.
Chong Woon Yong: I play Sam. He sells property. Perhaps he is that insurance agent friend we all know, and avoid. What drives him? What does he fear? Is reservist a fertile ground for sales leads, or a mirror he does not want to gaze into?
What do you think of FRAGO?
Chong Woon Yong: At first glance, it seems to be just another ‘army’ or ‘reservist’ play. But it’s not just that. We see how the circumstance of reservist transports these Singaporean men in their 30s from their everyday lives and brings them together into a compulsory limbo. FRAGO then becomes a lens to for us observe their hopes, fears and anxieties about life – all things that come as part of ‘adulting’.
Ali Anwar: FRAGO is an important play for both men and women to catch to further understand Singapore’s unique brand of men. It talks about their hopes and desires, the societal and personal pressures they face, and their fears.
Cerys Ong: I find it eye-opening. It brings me into the foreign world of Singaporean males and masculinity. I grew up in an environment where I had very little interaction with males and the things they go through in NS, so FRAGO really gave me an opportunity to understand why Singaporean men are how they are. I also find the reservist environment to be a very real – and sometimes dreadful – vacuum that explains the ‘stoning’ tendencies and the needs of our men in general.
Can you relate to FRAGO based on your own experiences of reservist training?
Chong Woon Yong: I certainly can. It’s almost like seeing my real reservist mates. I belong to an entirely different unit and vocation, and served my NS and reservist with people from entirely different backgrounds and occupations from the characters in the play. But somehow, the interactions between the characters are a little too familiar.
It could be that I am projecting my own experiences onto this play. But it could also be that all Singaporean men in their 30s interact like this in such a circumstance, or have the same fears and anxieties about life.
Ali Anwar: Absolutely! Of course, having served in the Police Force, there were many things about the army I was not familiar with. But the anguish of putting your life on hold for two weeks was easy to understand. More than the act of reservist, the questions these men present in the play are all headaches I’m facing at this stage of my life. There’s a bit of every character and the problems they face in all the questions I’m asking myself: Am I ready for marriage, or to be a father? Will I ever be ready to accept that my parents are getting old? Will I ever come to terms with the fact that I haven’t achieved all I wanted to achieve in my 20s? These are all questions that I think everyone will be able to relate to.
So Lucas, what does the title FRAGO refer to?
Lucas: FRAGO stands for “fragmentary order”. In the military, a modified order is issued in situations that arise when battle conditions change and existing mission orders are no longer relevant. That order is known as a FRAGO.
In a way, a reservist call-up is a sort of “fragmentary order” that affects the daily lives of men. That’s what FRAGO the play is about. I wanted to explore how army life impinges on civilian responsibilities, and vice-versa, even ten years after you ORD.
What inspired you to write a play about reservists?
Lucas: A lot has been written and said about the two years of full-time National Service. But the friendship you form with the men that you serve that time with is very unique. There’s very little written about that, which is why I wanted to write FRAGO. The generally held belief is that boys enter the army and emerge as men, before going off into the real world. But when they get called back for reservist, they have to relive this experience all over again, in a compressed space and time.
Reservist can be very stressful, as it forces you to walk away from your life and family for a couple of weeks. But it’s also comforting and worth looking forward to because you get to spend it with the same group of men with whom you’ve shared very intense experiences with, a group you’ve seen change and grow over their 20s. So what exactly is the nature of that dynamic? What do these men talk about when they meet again? That experience isn’t quite explored in the Singapore canon. And FRAGO is my attempt at that.
Is the play based on your own experiences?
Lucas: Strictly speaking, the play is not autobiographical. Rather, the play is based on my own observations of how men navigate adulthood in their 30s. Much of the play crystallised around bits of conversation I was a part of or overheard during reservist. The struggles that many of the characters in the play are facing are ones that my army mates and I have tried to talk to each other about. So the stories that I’m trying to capture are real experiences – but they’re not mine, per se.
How do you work with the director, Huzir Sulaiman, on FRAGO?
Lucas: It’s a partnership. During rehearsal, I am on hand to clarify certain lines or to serve as a technical advisor about the army, but I mostly sit by and let Huzir and the cast dig into and open up the text. Huzir will check in with me frequently about the shape of the performance as he develops it.
What are the challenges – for you as the playwright and for Huzir Sulaiman, as the director?
Lucas: Huzir approaches the play as an outsider: he’s never done NS or reservist before. He is also non-Chinese; the majority of the people in the armoured infantry unit are Chinese. What he pays attention to are the human relationships at work. He will always ask how the context or situation informs these relationships and their humanity.
It was a conscious decision, on my part as the playwright, to ground the play firmly in the reality of an armoured infantry unit. So this means that there’s a fair amount of jargon in the play. My challenge then was to make sure it doesn’t alienate those who have not served in the armoured infantry. I have to ensure it’s still accessible to the majority of people who have never served time in the army.
A vital litmus test for the play was handing it over to the actors. The cast is so diverse and varied – they all served their NS and reservist in different environments, and there were those like Cerys and Jo who are entirely new to this world. A lot of it held up really well, while there were other bits we worked to clarify so as to not completely distance the audience. We’ve also come up with a glossary of army terms that we’ve condensed and are including in the programme booklet.
Was it easy to cast this play? How did Huzir and yourself choose the actors for this production?
Lucas: It wasn’t particularly easy given the large cast. We have 11 actors and all have substantial roles in the play. So we had actors come in to audition, and after each round, Huzir and I would meticulously go through the merits of each performer vis-a-vis each of the characters in the play. And we knew we wanted to diversify the cast. Even though there are mostly Chinese soldiers in the armoured infantry unit, Huzir went ahead and did race-blind casting. As NS cuts across the social strata, we were also looking for people with different histories and socio-economic backgrounds. So it was a fairly involved and lengthy casting process.
What would you say to the public to encourage them to watch FRAGO?
Lucas: Come and watch FRAGO because it takes a long hard look at a part of Singapore culture that hasn’t been fully examined. For women, especially, come and discover what exactly your male friends, brothers, boyfriends and sons dread, loathe, and treasure about the army.
FRAGO is running from 13 – 23 July 2017 at the Drama Centre Black Box. Tickets are priced at $45, available via SISTIC. Do note that the play is rated Advisory 16 for some sexual references and coarse language. For more details, check out the Facebook event page here.