For any
other dedicated and inexperienced group of thespians, The Hypochondriac,
Moliere's lampoonery of the quack medical profession and self-willed
invalidism, would have been a daunting play to stage. Not so for young
& W!LD, the fledgling youth wing of highly established theatre company
W!LD RICE, which launches into one of the world's strangest plays with
exhilarating comic enthusiasm.
The ensemble delivers a rollicking, irreverent version of this classic
17th century farce, which is finely balanced between grim truth and
surreal looniness. Argan, a man so obsessed with his imaginary ailments,
willingly sacrifices his daughter's happiness for constant medical
attention from a troupe of absurdly inapt doctors. His preoccupation
with illness renders him blind to his wife Beline's designs on
his wealth, whose attempt at cuckoldry is foiled only by his discerning
brother, Beralde and shrewd maid, Toinette. Beneath the play's
improbable tricks and bizarre disguises is a more incriminating assault
on the follies of paranoia and disease of egotism that attack hope and
love.
Based on a traditional and rigorous performance style, Commedia dell'Arte,
this production demands taut physical movement and precise vocal inflection
to convey the script's complex interplay of bawdy jokes and scathing
social commentary. An alternatively contemporary and consequently looser
rendering of the characters' roles would have, as director Christina
Sergeant aptly mentioned after the show, taken a tedious "three
and a half hours" to stage. As a result, the ensemble is under
immense pressure to adhere to a strict rhythm and timing such that every
step taken, every word spoken, every interaction evokes the desired
nuance and innuendo. Unfortunately, the actors' characteristic
vigour and boldness, while capturing the play's outrageous mood,
sometimes hinder their ability to express the script's subtle
layers of irony. When Beline throws herself into a calculated outburst
expressing anxiety over her husband's condition, Daphne Ong's
clumsily paced delivery struggles to register the bathetic oscillations
between her character's barely contained glee at the prospect
of inheriting Argan's wealth, and feigned concern for his illnesses.
The actors' energetic repertoire often lacks this delicacy of
touch so crucial to the subversive comedy of these sequences.
Also, most of this youthful troupe do not have the elocution required
to articulate Gerard Murphy's translation of the play, whose scatological
puns and humorous references to bodily functions inhere a quintessentially
French flair. This is most evident in Ghazali Muzakir's performance
of Beralde, who never fully relaxes into Murphy's language. His
distracting mix of unnatural French accents and acrolectal Singaporean
English reflects a painstaking consciousness that, while redemptive
in its earnestness, lends the production an air of contrivance. Mostly,
the actors' movement and speech are too studied and forceful even
for the highly deliberate style this production adopts. As Argan works
himself into a frenzy over his illnesses, Muzakir folds his arms, sighs
and shakes his head with an amusing self-seriousness that gives the
impression of an actor performing Belrade, rather than of Belrade himself.
Despite such inconsistencies, The Hypochondriac mines several
strong individual moments. Tan Shou Chen's tottering and sputtering
on stage magnificently captures Argan's attention-seeking tendencies,
even if his performance bangs on that same note and grates towards the
end. Candice De Rozario and Eleanor Tan titillate in the musical interludes,
their mesmerising sopranos infusing the play's songs about hope
and love with remarkable depth of feeling and nuance. Ultimately, the
play unwittingly finds its star in Jasmine Koh's brilliantly calibrated
interpretation of sassy family maid Toinette, who easily undermines
her master's penchant for enemas and the doctors' harebrained
antics with an ironic arch of her eyebrow, bat of an eyelid or twitch
of the mouth. With minimal changes in vocal and facial expressions,
she projects more comic authority than anyone around her. This is surely
the desired result of the actors' individual efforts: the ability
to locate a fine balance between their flair for theatrics and more
subtle sensibilities of the stage.
What the actors lack individually they more than make up for in their
stunning ensemble work. Sergeant and Judy Ngo's impeccable vocal
and dance choreography culminates in the play's final rough-and-tumble
number, in which its hypochondriac hero is farcically elevated to doctorhood,
the better to medicate himself. The actors transform into an ensemble
of black-gowned buffoons that salute the healing arts in a rousing chorus
of fake Latin double-talk, steering themselves into an electrifying,
seemingly effortless synchronicity. The troupe's highly energetic,
yet precisely executed dances also uncork the real joy of the production,
exuding such generous charm that the smiles on their faces become yours.
There is a keen sense of this youthful troupe wanting to push the limits
of their experience and stagecraft to emerge from the play stronger
actors, even if they don't pull off their multiple and challenging
roles as convincingly as they would like to. What I value most about
this production is their infectious optimism, which embraces all our
artistic ideals and none of the cynicism that might seem inevitable
in a country that consistently undermines the arts. Some might dismiss
this as the product of youthful inexperience, or question its longevity
in a fickle, often heartbreaking arts scene. However, young & W!LD,
in the remarkably short space of three productions (On
North Diversion Road, Mad
Forest and The Hypochondriac), has registered critical
acclaim, scooped a major award and rivaled some of the finest plays
ever conceived here. Such tremendous growth is testament to the ensemble's
unwavering commitment to theatre; a resolve we must both encourage and
celebrate.
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"young & W!LD launches into one of the strangest plays in the
world with exhilarating comic enthusiasm."
Credits
Director: Christina Sergeant
Assistant Director: Judy Ngo
Translator: Gerard Murphy
Musician: Julian Wong
Production Manager:
Terence Tan
Set Designer: Yvonne Yuen
Lighting Designer: Vivianti Zasman
Costume Designer: Baey Ee Ming
Hair & Makeup Designer: Haslina Ismail
Stage Manager: Isabella Chiam, Daphne Ong
Lighting Operator: Siti Raudha Tehan
Dressers: Stacey Lopez, Joanna Tan
Composer and Arranger: Bang Wenfu
Ensemble: Audrey Luo, Candice De Rozario, Daphne Ong, Eleanor Tan, Ghazali
Muzakir, Hang Qian Chou, Isabella Chiam, Jasmine Koh, Jonathan Lum,
Tan Shou Chen, Terence Tan, Vanessa Wong
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