Three Fat Virgins Unassembled by Ovidia Yu

"Inside every fat virgin is a thin schoolgirl. There is no sadness like the inner sadness of fat virgins and skinny schoolgirls. There is no sadness like the sadness of a dreamy schoolgirl trapped inside the body of a fat virgin."

Session 6 of Open Roads will be held on Saturday 2 Oct 2010, 2pm - 4pm, Substation Classroom 1 and we will be looking this time at Three Fat Virgins Unassembled by award-winning playwright Ovidia Yu.

The play, an insightful but playful commentary on what it means to be a woman in contemporary Singapore society, is available from public libraries and major bookstores in the collection "Fat Virgins, Fast Cars and Asian Values".

The full text is also available online for free public access at:
http://econtent.elibraryhub.com/SHC/Singapore%20Pages/NORA/Literature/Drama/Ovidia%20Yu%20-%20Three%20Fat%20Virgins%20Unassembled.pdf

The playwright has generously agreed to join us for the session and we have also managed to get a recording of a 1992 production of the play from TheatreWorks that participants will be able to take a look at as part of our discussion.

To register, email us at admin@inkpotreviews.com. The fee is $5 which you can pay on the day itself.

The Coffin is too Big for the Hole and No Parking on Odd Days by Kuo Pao Kun

Next on our reading schedule are The Coffin is too Big for the Hole and No Parking on Odd Days which we will be discussing on Sat 18 Sep. Thanks to TheatreWorks, we will also be screening clips from a 1990 production of Coffin.

As always, the fee is $5 and the session will run 2pm - 4pm, Substation Classroom 1. Please email us at admin@inkpotreviews.com if you would like to attend.

Both monologues are classic works of Singapore literature and were penned by the late Kuo Pao Kun, co-founder of the The Substation and a leading figure in the local theatre scene till his passing in 2002.

Regarded as a mentor and inspiration by many practitioners today, Kuo received the Cultural Medallion in 1989 and the ASEAN Cultural Award in 1993. His plays have been translated in various languages and performed around the world.

These two short plays were his first English-language plays after years in the Mandarin theatre scene. Both are also among his first few works after release from detention by the government under the Internal Security Act (1976 - 1980).

Copies of the texts are, as always, available from public libraries and major bookstores.

You may want to think about the following questions when reading the plays:

1. One of the key themes of both plays is the conflict between the individual and the bureaucracy of the state. What other tensions do you think are being explored?

2. Are there incidents in your own personal life that mirror the circumstances described in the plays? To what extent do you feel that the plays are specific to Singapore? How do you think the plays would translate overseas?

3. What are the similarities and differences between the two plays? Why do you think Coffin has been staged much more often than Parking?

4. To what extent do you think the two texts work specifically as pieces of theatre? If you were a director, how would you choose to present the plays onstage?

Reviews of productions of the plays can be found here:

1. W!ld Rice (Singapore, 2000 and 2001)
http://inkpot.com/theatre/00reviews/00revkuopaokundoubbill.htm
http://www.wildrice.com.sg/images/doc/news/2001/20010207INKPOT.pdf

2. Teater Mandiri and The Theatre Practice (Indonesia and Singapore, 2001)
http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/01reviews/01revcoffistoobighole.html

3. Alec Tok (USA, 2001)
http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxxi/2001.02.02/ae/p19coffin.html

4. Drama Box (Singapore, 2010)
http://www.inkpotreviews.com/2010reviews/0223,coff,kk.xml

Those Who Can't, Teach (2010) by Haresh Sharma

We had ten participants for this afternoon's session of Open Roads and joining us as our special guest was Alvin Tan, Artistic Director of the The Necessary Stage and the director of the 1991 and 2010 stagings of Those Who Can't, Teach.






The next meeting for Open Roads will be on Saturday 18 Sep 2010, 2pm - 4pm, Substation Classroom 1 and we will be looking at two canonical texts of Singapore literature, the monologues The Coffin is too Big for the Hole and No Parking on Odd Days, both by the late Kuo Pao Kun.

To register, email us at admin@inkpotreviews.com. The fee is $5 which you can pay on the day itself.

Copies of the plays are available from the public library as well as major bookstores.