What the Utter! Local literature heads to the stage

PUBLISHED June 25th, 2012 05:03 pm | UPDATED March 28th, 2016 02:00 pm

We are becoming quite a fan of the Singapore literary scene. Now if you are sitting there bemused because the fact that we have quite a thriving literary scene had completely passed you by, it’s time for you to sit down, shut up, and pay attention. It may not be laid down slap bang right in front of you – our literary scene requires a little coaxing because a lot of it is happening behind closed doors for most of the time.  But then there are certain platforms that blow those doors open and lay it there for the taking – platforms like Utter.

Utter is a a key lead-up programme to the Singapore Writers Festival’s (SWF) which takes place in November, and seeks to showcase the best of Singapore writing and celebrate the written word’s potential to be adapted for different media like theatre, film and even games. Staged at the Art House, there are two plays being staged under the Utter banner.

The first in the bi-lingual double bill, Shadows in the Jungle, will be performed in Chinese with English surtitles and is adapted from Yeng Pway Ngon’s latest novel, The Studio, one of the top 10 Best Chinese Novels Worldwide. The second is in English – and is a mash-up of two of O Thiam Chin’s short stories The Yellow Elephant and The Girl Who Swallowed the Sun.

It was the titles of the works featured in the latter mash-up that drew me in. It just sounded so surreal and it has to be said I have a weakness for the surreal. And how much more surreal can you get than a woman coming home to discover her husband missing and an enormous yellow elephant wrecking havoc in the living room of her HDB flat? And then a young girl committing the unspeakable crime of swallowing the sun and being trapped at the bottom of a dried up well? Precisely!

Curiosity firmly piqued, I was ready to interview Director Nelson Chia – who has performed with and directed numerous theatre companies in Singapore and is currently Associate Artistic Director of Toy Factory theatre company (pssst a great production coming up from them this August – watch this space); and award-winning playwright Jean Tay and author and playwright of the critically acclaimed BOOM (which is about to open at the DBS Arts Centre). I was just so curious about about what is involved in adapting a written work to a play, and then directing them in that form.

What do you look for when you consider adapting and directing written work as a play?

Nelson Chia: I will pay attention to two things. Firstly, the balance between the narrative style and language of the written work and the play, after all, they are two slightly different genres. Secondly, the potential for theatricality in the written work. What I mean is, the play need not have conventional dramatic conflict or structure, but even if it is, say, a mundane narrative of events, it must carry with it the beauty and magic of theatre — making something out of nothing.

Jean Tay: I guess I look for something that’s inherently dramatic, i.e. the stakes should be high enough that the audience would care about the characters.I also look out for a piece that could potentially be theatricalised onstage in an interesting manner.

Thiam Chin is known for his literary dexterity, but what in particular was it about his works in particular which you thought would work well as a play?

Nelson Chia: I was attracted to the fantastical nature of the stories, and how they were based on a seemingly normal environment. The tension between the real and imaginary is addictive.

Jean Tay: I love the heightened drama in these two pieces, and their quirky, magic, surrealistic nature, that suggests something larger than life.

What were the specific challenges of adapting and directing Thiam Chin’s works as a play?

Nelson Chia: How to create the tension between the real and imaginary, between what we see and hear and what we don’t. But it is this challenge which I’m attracted to.

Jean Tay: Written works tend to explore the character’s journey from the inside.  Trying to “show, not tell” what is going on in the character’s head is a challenge, and so is finding a dramatic arc that can be clearly portrayed onstage. However, I love the fact that you have a rich source material to start with, and you can springboard off someone else’s imagination to enter a different world.

If you had to convince someone to come and see The Yellow Elephant and The Girl Who Swallowed the Sun – what would you say to them?

Nelson Chia: Well… if you want to know how we managed to weave the story of a yellow elephant in a woman’s living room and a girl who hides at the bottom of a well after having swallowed the sun, and try to place that in the setting of a cafe under renovation, which at one level is not real but the projection of a writer’s mind…? Then you should come and find out!

Jean Tay: It’s rare to see stories that are so quirky and surrealistic and even apocalyptic, yet grounded in a very specifically Singaporean setting.  Hopefully, they’ll also enjoy the way that the stories and themes unconsciously resonate off each other.

Both Chia and Tay agree that if there’s one thing they would like YOU to take away from these two works is a new appreciation for local literature, and spark an urge to go and read some great local fiction because there is some great stuff out there. With so many new and exciting writers emerging in the local scene across a variety of genres, the one thing they need is more exposure to US. Utter is one way we to give them the exposure they deserve as we await the Singapore Writer’s Festival’s return but then they need US to appreciate them.  We at City Nomads are eagerly awaiting the chance to see and appreciate some local fiction translated onto stage. How about you?

Utter – a double bill performance featuring Shadows in the Jungle x The Yellow Elephant and The Girl Who Swallowed The Sun will take place at the Play Den, Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane. Performance times: 5-7 July, 8pm; 7 July 3pm (matinee). Tickets can be purchased through Bytes here.