MAN Singapore Theatre Festival 2011 -- "Charged"

This was the first play I watched in part of the MAN Singapore Theatre Festival 2011.

(Official poster for MAN Singapore Theatre Festival 2011)

"Charged" is very much a Singapore production. It talks about National Service, the different races in our society, about Racial Harmony Day. It uses lingo, catchphrases and context which are familiar to the eyes and ears of Singaporeans. It injects humour which sometimes only locals understand.

However, behind the snide remarks and humor of this show, it deals with serious and thought provoking issues which have a gravity not only for Singapore, but also for other globalized societies as well.

Below, quoted from the MAN Singapore Theatre Festival website, is a sypnosis of what "Charged" is all about:

It’s Chinese New Year and the only soldiers in camp on guard duty are Malay or Indian. That is, until Corporal Russell Lim turns up. Things start turning ugly when the insults start flying and all that’s taboo becomes fair game. By the end of the night, a Chinese and a Malay soldier are found dead.

Enter Investigating Officer Victor de Souza, who needs to uncover the chain of events that have led to the tragedy. 

The stakes are high because the incident has led to an eruption of tension between the Malay and Chinese communities in Singapore. Yet with each interview that he conducts, he plunges deeper into a labyrinth of slippery half-truths and sly omissions.

Can Officer de Souza arrive at the truth? Or will he be confronted with something so terrible that there is no other choice but a cover up?

Set in the claustrophobic confines of the army, Chong Tze Chien’s Charged interrogates the thorny issue of race with brutal honesty and a refreshing lack of political correctness. 

 Born and bred in Singapore, living in a multi-racial society has always been part and parcel of my life. I've never thought much about complexities of living with so many different ethnicity, race and religion, and probably never will if not for this show.

The show led me thinking: Is Singapore really a society in which different races are living harmoniously with each other? Is racial harmony equivalent to racial tolerance? I know that in order to have harmony, you must first learn to tolerate the differences, and from there understand and appreciate.

So is that what we are? A harmonious society? Or are we just being tolerable?

I've never thought about the differences between the different races, simply because we are not taught to. People of different races grow up in the same community, we study in the same school, we watch the same TV channel(s) (It's actually only just Channel 5), and we have the same bunch of friends.

So really, I am ignorant of the seriousness of the differences between different races, religions and beliefs.

I think this is a problem when you are in the "majority" group. Majority of Singaporeans are Chinese, and when you think about it, the same set of differences you see when you are in a big group seemed smaller. In retrospect, the same set of differences you see when you are in a small group gets amplified.

Through the eyes of different people, issues get tainted, sometimes magnified. And that's when you get friction.

I think this is what essentially this play is about. 

The show is presented by a refreshing set of casts (finally no Adrian Pang), and I like how the play was directed. Same scene, different interpretations. It's something like the movie Vantage Point, just that you don't need to bear through watching the same scene from different angles seven times.

I have to say that the mothers of the show did a great job. I like Serene Chen, who portrayed the character of Russel's mother. You can almost sense her helplessness and disbelief, when she heard news of her son murdering a fellow soldier and then committing suicide. Especially touching was the scene which showed two mothers and their (dead) sons, and when they knelt before their mothers to apologize, it was heart wrenching.

 It's been some time since I last watched a show which not only can I relate to, but also made me think further.

"Charged", I heard, was one of the MAN Singapore Theatre Festival productions which was a sell out the earliest, and it is not difficult to see why.

CHARGED trailer

Hear DA MAN speak. Writer of CHARGED: Chong Tze Chien