Written by lainie at 04:50 AM on August 9, 2006 in Arty stuff.

Erna was a darling and gave me a free ticket to watch the musical she's in, Refugee: Images. I liked her part as the prostitute of the village. In fact, her scene was one of my favourites, and I'm not saying this just cause we're friends.

I found a lot of problems with the play. Unintended humour, if you will. I quite unsuccessfully held back giggles at how ridiculous some scenes looked. They are singers, and they do that well. The other parts were.....well.......

One Picture Review:


I forgot to draw the lil stool he was balancing on.

Hasty sketch because I have no photo of the play (oh that's a whole other PR disaster story, someone keep the Front of House woman away from the mic), and am taking a few minutes break from work.
I'll update more about the rest of the musical and msian shorts tomorrow. Work work work.

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[ Update ]

I think it says something about a play, when after we were done watching it, the agreement was the whole musical has tremendous potential as a comedy - that is, if the whole thing was dubbed over with the sound of chickens clucking.

Really - it'd be brilliant if it was.

Apparently this is a Canticle Singers tradition - but, I'm not too keen on musicals that start with "Negaraku". It may be our national anthem, but I associate it with the years I woke up at 6am to stand in line with my schoolmates. I instantly feel sleepy from the first few bars. Very Pavlovian.

The play was way too talky for a musical....I'll say again, it's okay to have a message in the play, but really. This doesn't even border on pedantic, it practically defines it. Where are the bloody songs?

There were parts where men slowly spin offstage with their arms apart, like tops. While wailing melodrama like "My soul is being torn apaaaaaaaaaaaaart"......And they do it one by one, in case you missed it the first time. That's an awfully long time to stop breathing cause you're trying not to laugh, yknow?

Another case of accidentally making fools out of themselves in a serious play? Have some "rat" wine (I assume she meant red).

The "fight scene" in the beginning, where the guard supposedly punches the refugee was so badly done, I laughed. Where they had green lights, smoke, and some dude balancing on a stool as he mimes a "dragon". I laughed. There were scenes where they all sprawled onstage and moaned in what was meant to sound pitiful, I suppose. I laughed.

I laughed because they were doing something extremely ridiculous in a very serious manner. Much accidental humour.

The Canticle Singers are.....Well. Singers. The songs were alright, fun. I liked Erna's scene because it was fun, the performers were more relaxed looking, and it actually sent out a message without anyone needing to do a voice over of exactly what "the issue" was about in this scene.

The rest of it was a bit too unimpressive for me. Go for the singing, ignore everything else.

Anyways - WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM REFUGEE: IMAGES? Suanie will let you know in six seconds:



Hahahhahahahhahaaaa. Pengsan.

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