read my mind

Since both Ruth and Daniel have passed their judgements on Here Lies Love, Kent Ridge Hall's postmodern take on Romeo and Juliet, which performed last Friday. The 13th.

I'd been telling everyone who bothered to listen, that I liked how the play was staged on Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, and how this might have been in keeping with the postmodern slant. I wonder if the idea of the postmodern entered the music choices. The whole play was a mix of musical genres, with cabaret, hip-hop, pop, rock, fusion. It was rather confused, in my opinion.

Oh how we love him, oh how we hate him
A love-hate thing we've got going

Yeah. Sounds clever? Try hearing that line a million times in succession. Even 'Womanizer''s not that irritating. Sure, the harmonies and counterpoints were nicely arranged, but when you don't even get to hear how the 'actors' really loved or hated their 'director', it's time to go back to the writing-board. Lyrics were so cringe-worthy that they intruded upon the competent music arrangement. Every couplet rhymed, for example:

You're all I desire
And all I require
Two of a kind
Our hearts entwined

Seriously? This really deserves a big 'Aiyooo...'

Ruth and Daniel mentioned how the male lead's final ranting song against his 'director' didn't gel with the angry mood, but sounded more like an uplifting pop-rock ballad. I think I know why: the song made it sound as if the lead was finally free of the 'director''s stronghold on him, but as we saw quite quickly after the song, he clearly was not over it.

In all honesty, I think the premise of the play was really clever, and this is not just to patronise Andrea, the producer and writer (story, not script) of Here Lies Love. Notions of truth, narrative and all that! What I loved to see in a play. Pity though, that it didn't seem as if the majority of the audience, or the crew for that matter, knew what it was about! When a cast member carried one of the 'dead' leads offstage during an intense scene, the audience applauded! What an insult to the actors trying to emote for the emotional scene in this one-off performance. I don't know, but I guess Daniel was right when he said they didn't know their audience. I wish though, that the audience was up to the challenge that the play should potentially pose to them.

posted by Ryan at 9:42:00 pm