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Poor Thing | 4/5

SINGAPORE — Who knew a major pile-up of emotions could result from such a minor fender bender?

Let's share this. The Necessary Stage's Poor Thing gets ugly and virtual. Photo: Caleb Ming / SURROUND

Let's share this. The Necessary Stage's Poor Thing gets ugly and virtual. Photo: Caleb Ming / SURROUND

SINGAPORE — Who knew a major pile-up of emotions could result from such a minor fender bender?

In The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) latest play, we find ourselves in the role of the gawking bystander as two couples lock horns after a late night car accident.

And like the centerpiece of its very inventive stage set — designer Vincent Lim’s two partly-stripped down cars — the characters in Poor Thing lay everything bare, warts and all.

Almost instantly, we are thrust into the drama, after newbie driver Sharifah (Siti Khalijah Zainal) and her BFF-on-reservist Jerome Koshy (Dwayne Lau) crashes into the BMW of a noveau riche couple, the practical-minded Jevon (Joshua Lim) and posh-accented-and-mightily-drunk Alisha (Sharda Harrison). All four vividly play almost-but-not-quite to type; but rather than diminish the impact, this accentuates the contrasts of the in-your-face confrontation we witness.

What starts as a level-headed discussion about insurance eventually descends into snarling chaos. And it’s during these moments of naked aggression where prejudices come out. Class, race, homosexuality, notions of the “ugly Singaporean” — it all gets pretty ugly pretty fast. But before it truly explodes, someone remarks: “Get ready to film.”

This is where Poor Thing’s uniqueness comes in. Director Alvin Tan and playwright Haresh Sharma have always been sharp and sensitive social commentators. Their grasp of social issues and ability to transform these into gripping theatre is second to none, and here you recall the less savoury instances of neighbor disputes and road rage incidents in Singapore.

But the duo has equally been forward thinking when looking at theatre as a mode of communication. And where other Singapore groups are only starting to come to grips with technology and social media (both on and off the stage), TNS has embraced and integrated these seamlessly into the show, raising some interesting possibilities.

From being asked to “friend” Jerome Koshy on Facebook prior to the show to “liking” and commenting on his posts during the show, these moves deepen the audience investment in Poor Thing. Yet at the same time, we are subtly put under scrutiny. Our initial distraction while exploring this novelty of being able to use our phones (to Facebook!) during a play echoes our skimming habits when trawling through our feeds. In both cases, we’re not completely “there”.

And here’s where Poor Thing sneaks in another “sub-plot” of sorts, with the audience seemingly as main characters.

The production’s commentary on social media, trolling and the online world is, of course, topical. But its actual use is, formalistically speaking, a necessity as well — sure, the play discusses social media, but it’s way more enriching to immerse in it.

And perhaps, what’s most interesting here is how, despite the option of seeing Poor Thing’s live theatre-meets-social media experiment as a single integrated whole, it could also be perceived as two parallel stories that are the same but not quite: The real-time, flesh-and-bone performance before our eyes and the fragments that appear on Koshy’s account, from which anyone who “friends” him can piece together a separate narrative of sorts as well, whether or not he or she watches the play.

In presenting it as such, the very essence of a theatrical performance changes. What exactly is Poor Thing anyway? The allotted one hour running time? What then of the characters’ (interactive) life way before the show began and, theoretically speaking, days after the run finishes? Facebook, after all, could be seen as a never-ending autobiography.

It would be easy to look at all these as mere gimmick or novelty, but we prefer to see it as TNS opening a Pandora’s Box of sorts when it comes to theatre-watching (at least in Singapore). And we wonder what else will emerge.

Poor Thing runs until March 9 at The Necessary Stage Black Box. Limited tickets available at poorthing.peatix.com.

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