Cook A Pot Of Curry | 3.5/5

SINGAPORE — It didn’t take that long for Cooling Off Day (COD) to cool down before Alfian Sa’at went shopping for the same ingredients for the same type of dish.

Cook A Pot Of Curry, the main highlight of Wild Rice’s mini-festival of works by their resident playwright, follows the same documentary format of its predecessor — across-the-board interviews regarding issues, which are then packaged as entertaining fare with bite.

Indeed, if people lapped up the first one back in 2011 (and its restaging last year), why not, right?

Even some of the, erm, kitchen implements used for Cook A Pot Of Curry are the same. Najib Soiman and Neo Swee Lin — both just as sharp as they were the last time — are holdovers from COD and joined here by equally up-to-the-task Rishi Budhrani, Nelson Chia, Noorlinah Mohamed and Judee Tan.

Its “plating”, as it were, is slightly different, of course, with Glen Goei directing this time around. He seems to like these documentary-type works more sugary and Curry’s got a sprinkling of catchy songs, including a tweaked sarcastic version of Kit Chan’s Home.

It is, after all, for a slightly different occasion — Singapore’s fast growing population and the resulting tensions between foreigners and locals. The title’s taken from the 2011 incident involving the dish, its makers and the Chinese migrant neighbours, and recent events, culminating in the Population White Paper, have fuelled the huge debate about the effects of overpopulation on the social fabric.

You’ve got alienation, space issues, questions of identity and culture, slow assimilation and reluctant accommodation; there’s anger, frustration, sadness; you’ve got statistics, facts, even theories relating to the population boom, both conspiratorial (eugenics) and sound (the cheap labour relations between Singapore and poorer countries like the Philippines and Bangladesh). It tries to accommodate as many views as possible, even the more irrational ones that lurk online (thankfully, briefly). But here also are more sensible voices (or at least those that have something to actually say), from social worker Jolovan Wham to the Population White Paper protest’s Gilbert Goh to people on both sides of the “fence”, from the Singaporean student in the overcrowded train (that becomes a succinct metaphor, “mind the gap” announcements and all) to the foreigners who have embraced Singapore, notably actress Daisy Irani, which was played perfectly by Neo.

(Incidentally, Irani’s own theatre company staged a forum theatre piece dealing with the same “foreigner” issue earlier this year, which starred Budhrani as well.)

Alfian attempts to be relatively fair, even presenting alternative views to strongly held beliefs. If people think foreigners would immediately go for the ruling party, a Chinese permanent resident, for example, admits he’d support the opposition for democracy’s sake.

The piece doesn’t let audiences off the hook as well, with a clever ending that involves the national anthem. Who among the audience members are Singaporeans? Will they stand and sing? Do they even know the words? A surprise quiz for the Singaporean in you.

Like COD, Cook A Pot Of Curry is, primarily, a kind of snapshot a collective “release”, a social “sigh/scream” recorded by Alfian. But unlike the former, which had the currency of both novelty and immediacy, the latter perhaps overreaches and sacrifices a bit of depth (its list of interviewees not as extensive or as varied as the rich COD). And besides, the issue of foreigners is one that will simmer for a while more — we’re in the middle of it, unlike COD, which had the luxury of a full stop, capturing a specific moment in time. This gives Curry a sense of being neither here nor there, of feeling its way through. But then again, wouldn’t that be a rather apt reflection of the milieu it tries to capture?

So while it might not be to everyone’s taste, perhaps there’s a much more satisfying way to look at it: That we’ve all found ourselves in the theatre, sharing this particular Curry.

Cook A Pot Of Curry runs until July 20, 8pm, The Singapore Airlines Theatre, LASALLE College of the Arts. With 3pm weekend matinees. Tickets from Sistic. For more on the other shows and the festival, visit http://www.wildrice.com.sg/.