Everything but the Brain by Jean Tay

As planned, we will be looking at Everything but the Brain by Jean Tay for our third Open Roads reading club session on Sat 21 Aug 2010, 2pm, The Substation Classroom 1. We are happy to announce that the playwright has kindly agreed to join us on the day for the last part of our discussion. We still have a few vacancies left - email us at admin@inkpotreviews.com to register. (More information about Open Roads is in our first post below - 11 Jun 2010).

Everything But The Brain is about a Physics teacher who, upon learning that her father is dying, devises a plan to turn back time, using her knowledge of the Theory of Relativity. The play won the Life! Theatre Award of Best Script in 2006 and is marked by its poignancy, humour and spirit.

"Jean's adroit handling of themes, from the origins of genius to gene heritage and the tyranny of Time, makes Everything but the Brain one of the best things seen on stage here in a while" - The Straits Times

"One of the most thoughtfully constructed shows to come out of Singapore in recent times." - The Business Times.

The idea behind a reading club is to allow a free-flow of ideas to be shared but here are some things you might want to think about before the session while reading the play:

1. "I believe that Everything but the Brain is fundamentally about the love and desperation of a daughter who does everything she can to keep her father alive" - Jean Tay. To what extent do you agree with this?

2. How do you feel the device of the chorus impacts on the structure of the play? If you were directing Everything but the Brain, how would you stage the shifts in time and present the three bears onstage?

3. How succesfully do you think the playwright employs scientific theory and fairytales to frame the action of the play? How do they enhance our understanding of the play's themes?

A Flying Inkpot review of the 2007 production of the play by ACTION Theatre can be found here.