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W!ld Rice’s new play, Hotel, explores Singapore’s history

SINGAPORE — Set in a hotel that opened in Singapore at the turn of the century, W!ld Rice’s latest production, Hotel, is a play that checks in to said establishment to see what its occupants and staff are up to over a period of 100 years. Each scene in the play bookmarks a 10-year period.

We'd like a room please. W!ld Rice's two-parter Hotel at this year's Singapore International Festival of Arts. Photo: W!ld Rice.

We'd like a room please. W!ld Rice's two-parter Hotel at this year's Singapore International Festival of Arts. Photo: W!ld Rice.

SINGAPORE — Set in a hotel that opened in Singapore at the turn of the century, W!ld Rice’s latest production, Hotel, is a play that checks in to said establishment to see what its occupants and staff are up to over a period of 100 years. Each scene in the play bookmarks a 10-year period.

The idea was influenced in part by Singapore’s Golden Jubilee and the theme for this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), said Glen Goei, who co-directs this effort with Ivan Heng.

“The theme for this year is Post Empires and we had the instinct to do a play about history,” he said. “We wanted to use the hotel as a metaphor for Singapore. The country is made up of immigrants. As a port, it services traders and expats. People come here, after generations, they migrate. It sits with the idea of Singapore as a transient place where people come and go.”

Marcia Vanderstraaten, who co-wrote the play with Alfian Sa’at, elaborates: “In a hotel, people bring their baggage — both literally and metaphorically — then they pick it up and go”.

She added: “We look at what the key events that happened in each decade were and had to do a lot of research. The challenge was that each decade was quite distinct in and of itself as you have a different group of characters, different settings — even the room looks different from decade to decade. So we had to be very specific; creating each scene was almost like writing a new play (each time).”

“It was very challenging, partly because none of us lived before 1962 and so, really, the decades before 1965 were very difficult for us,” added Goei, citing how they made the actors spend a lot of time in the library and on the Internet to research. “We were discovering our own histories, along with the history of Singapore before 1965.

“It was challenging for us to try to discover how people walked, how people talked, how they moved. We had to try to discover the way people spoke, the language that they used, the different etiquette, the different manners. We had to bring in props that we’ve never seen in our lives.”

A 100-Year Journey

Hotel starts in 1915 and follows Singapore’s journey as it morphs from British colony to Malaysian state to sovereign nation. The characters include Indian mutineers, Cantonese nannies, Malay film stars (P Ramlee makes an appearance), mining magnates, Japanese soldiers and drag queens.

And the play isn’t without its controversial moments. “Well, you know at W!ld Rice, we enjoy having talking points in our plays,” Vanderstraaten said with a laugh. “I think what we bring up in Hotel are things that we need to talk about: For example, because race is such a big thing, the progress or lack of progress of interracial politics, we just worked it into the narrative — and that’s just one scene. I hope there are things that the audience will talk about or at least think about.”

“There is a tribute to Bugis Street, which was a very famous tourist attraction in the 1960s and 1970s and you can imagine what went on there,” Goei revealed. “Without giving too much away, it is really a multi-layered cake, a bit like kueh lapis. There are 11 scenes and each scene is a different year, a different decade. We’ve approached every scene from a very different genre; every scene is treated differently so it’s very rich and I hope it reflects what Singapore was.”

Finding Our National Identity

Unlike other W!ld Rice productions, Hotel will be staged in two parts. The audience has the option to watch just one part or go for both. Goei revealed that this wasn’t so much an artistic decision as it was a logistical one. “We decided to do 10 decades in 11 scenes. But every scene is about 20 minutes long so I think it was just necessary (to split the play in two) ... there’s so much material to cover.”

With such a lengthy production comes the possibility that audiences may not be able to relate to it, but both Goei and Vanderstraaten aren’t anticipating such a situation.

“We’re not worried about that because each part stands on its own. But it’ll be a much richer experience for the audience if they watch both parts,” said Goei, who also serves as associate artistic director at W!ld Rice. “I don’t think any local production has been this long and gone over two parts. It’s a very immersive experience. You have to let it wash over you.”

Vanderstraaten added: “Each part is very rich; if you watch both, you will see the relation between part one and two and they make sense as a whole and not just one part.”

However, both Goei and Vanderstraaten said that the play won’t just be a history lesson for the audience.

“I think it’s actually very reflective,” Goei said. “It’s a lot about identity, about who we are as a people, who we are as a nation, the struggles we have as to what our identity is. It questions our identity, our nationality and also deals head-on with a lot of racial issues, which is so taboo for people in Singapore to discuss. You can’t just sweep it under the carpet and imagine it’s not there.”

He added: “I think it’s very provocative because, as artists, we have been told to tiptoe on topics like race, religion and politics but … the play also deals a lot with colonialism, imperialism and empires. There are a lot of ways of dealing with the word ‘empire’ and we had to deal with so many empires over so many years. We’re still asking this question about our national identity.”

Hotel runs from Aug 27 to 30 at Victoria Theatre. Tickets from SISTIC. For more details, visit http://sifa.sg/sifa

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