{"id":34064,"date":"2015-11-01T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=34064"},"modified":"2021-04-30T17:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T09:05:52","slug":"the-emperors-new-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/the-emperors-new-clothes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emperor’s New Clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thought-provoking fun doesn\u2019t get any better than W!LD RICE\u2019s production of The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em>. As Impresario Ivan Heng said, \u2018It makes you just a little uncomfortable, doesn\u2019t it?\u2019 Yes, but it also made us laugh till the tears ran down our cheeks and gasp with admiration for the incredible amount of work, skill and sheer devotion that Pam Oei put into the play\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W!LD RICE made a brave \u2013 and very successful \u2013 assault on our sensitivities when they produced Oscar Wilde\u2019s The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>. They have taken a step forward with this pantomime. More than the usual holiday frolic, it captivated everyone from a three-year-old to this eighty-three-year-old. It made us think of different things, I am sure, but left us both with the WOW that promises theatre in Singapore is alive and flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joel Tan\u2019s script and Julian Wong\u2019s music skilfully combined a local touch with the questions today\u2019s 20-somethings should be \u2013 and are \u2013 asking. It kept enough of the traditional to permit experiments not only with the culture of Singapore but with the maturity of the audience. It was pitched perfectly. To get so many young to perform so unselfconsciously and professionally was a feat I have not seen on the stage before. Choreographers Gino Flordeliza Babagay and Hafeez Hassan had their work cut out \u2013 and met the challenge. Set designer Eucien Chia spared no effort to combine the atmosphere of music hall with the pomposity of imperial trappings. The vast production team all deserve a mention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the cast, it is invidious to single out any performers. They were all brilliant. Lim Kay Siu, the perfect Emperor, Siti Khalijah, a mind-blowing Minister of Finance and the exquisitely named Minister of Retribution (Wong Bok Siu) all deserve Oscars. But they, I know, would agree that the rosettes of the evening must go to the children, not forgetting their hard-working and, by now I am sure, exhausted chaperones. Children on stage are often awkward, torn between attention-getting and reticence. None of that here. Every child was professional, clearly enjoying themselves and, in turn, giving us tremendous fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is this aspect of W!LD RICE\u2019s and Ivan Heng\u2019s work that I think is the best. Great actors \u2013 and Ivan certainly is one \u2013 know where centre stage is. Greater actors lead the young into the limelight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what Ivan does, not just for W!LD RICE, not just for his actors, but for all Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very big thank you and congratulations. You deserve all the support you can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproduced from The Daily Paradox<\/a> with permission from John Bittleston.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Bittleston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[370,359],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}