KNOTS: An open letter to 艺族 STRANGER
about 56 months ago (09/19/2019)
KNOTS: An open letter to 艺族 STRANGER | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints The Pond Photography September 19, 2019 By Ke Weiliang (1,131 words, 6-minute read) Dear 艺族 STRANGER, After spending my Saturday afternoon with you at the Esplanade Theatre Studio, I struggled long and hard to make sense of the titular ‘knots’ that your inaugural play endeavoured to grapple with. Over the course of an hour, you gave me a glimpse into the reincarnation process of Yuan Yuan (played by Judy Ngo), a 45-year-old teacher who finds herself in an expansive underworld (designed by Han Xuemei, Liu Yong Huay and Ng Jing) following an unexplained death while grading her students’ papers. While Yuan Yuan is being forced to rush through the reincarnation process, she experiences a life review of incidents that happened to her teenage self (played by Teo Pei Si) during junior college – all revolving around Yuan Yuan’s failed attempt to secure a much-desired internship at a prestigious Taiwanese theatre company straight after her ‘A’ levels.