{"id":34074,"date":"2015-11-01T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T09:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=34074"},"modified":"2021-04-30T17:28:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T09:28:17","slug":"the-king-and-queen-of-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/the-king-and-queen-of-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"The King and Queen of Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Audrey, tell us about Kay Siu\u2019s character.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: He\u2019s self-absorbed and narcissistic \u2013 he loves himself so much, and has forgotten all about me. But he\u2019s a very talented man. It\u2019s just that, over the years, he changed and fell in love with himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kay Siu, what can you say about the relationship between your Emperor and his Empress?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: I think they fell in love very young. Young love can evolve and go through a lot of changes. But, because he saved a whole country, it got to his head. He became so vain. So there\u2019s actually a broken love story at the beginning of this panto, which can only heal when he realises that she always brought out the best in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s quite an interesting twist on the love story in a pantomime!<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: Yes! It\u2019s quite adult, actually, which is interesting. But I\u2019ve been talking to the children backstage. They were saying, \u201cOf course the Empress drinks! The Emperor has forgotten all about her!\u201d So kids that age \u2013 eight-year-olds! \u2013 understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: So cute!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: I was very happy to hear that coming from the kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s it been like playing this relationship as actors?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: At first, we were just working on finding our own characters. Separately, we both went in very theatrical and quite cartoonish directions, because we thought it was a panto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: [laughs] Actually, this version also quite panto what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: But now it\u2019s more Disney, and we were more stark. More ugly, I think, in some ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: Ya, and I was very angsty. I was angry with him. We were practically biting each other\u2019s heads off before! Instinctively, I think that was what we got from the script. When we read our lines, we felt that was the way to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: There was a lot of anger in both characters. If they\u2019re so angry with each other, the love story may not work at the end. So we had to soften everything. Two weeks before the show opened, Ivan popped into rehearsals and told us that we were too mean and evil. We worked quite hard with Pam, our director, to bring that down and become more child-friendly. My vanity, for instance, has become more benign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that challenge you as actors?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: There\u2019s a certain charm to the Emperor that has to be there. Even though he\u2019s done some terrible things, like imprisoning people who are against him, the challenge was to make this monster charming: so that people can like and forgive him when he makes his self-discovery at the end. If they hate him, it\u2019s not going to work. That\u2019s quite a difficult thing to do, actually. I was certainly on the wrong track: I played him more severely, in the vein of Lee Kuan Yew, and I needed help from Pam and Ivan to find this more benevolent, charming character. The love story is interesting, too, because it softens the man. They have domestic arguments, but they\u2019re not evil to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: I\u2019m still fine-tuning my character too. Over these past few weeks, I\u2019ve been trying to find the correct way to pitch Jeanette How \u2013 to not make her too barky, too fierce, too over-the-top or<\/em> too gentle. Getting direction from Pam on how to pitch the character was very good. It challenged me to think, and I realised that another way of playing the character could work. It started to fall into place when the show opened, and we tried out different things with audiences to see what works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the music in this show.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: Oh, I love the music. I\u2019ve done a few pantos, and I don\u2019t want to compare and say which is better and which is worse. But I\u2019m really in love with the music! Julian has a lot of classical references and different styles, like disco-funk, in his writing, and I love that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: I\u2019ve always been a fan of Julian\u2019s music. It moves me and I love everything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s it been like working together?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: This is my first panto and the journey has been really wonderful. I\u2019m learning a lot<\/em> from everyone. I\u2019m learning a lot from Kay Siu! He\u2019s a theatre veteran that I\u2019ve always looked up to. And I\u2019m finally in a show with him. He plays my husband some more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: We\u2019re getting to know each other too, which has been fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Kay Siu and Audrey get the Royal Treatment
at the gala premiere of\u00a0The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em>!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kay Siu, you\u2019ve been in four pantos. What\u2019s different about\u00a0The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em>?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: The biggest thing, of course, is that everybody plays an instrument. That\u2019s huge, technically, but also talent-wise. The band is so small, because the rest of the actors play instruments \u2013 I think that\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: I get it easier than him \u2013 my instrument-playing is not as siong<\/em>. Some of the actors really have a lot to do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re a panto newbie, Audrey. Is it quite different from other plays and musicals you\u2019ve performed in?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: I am really very much enjoying being in a panto \u2013 it\u2019s so festive and happy, and such a fun way to end off the year. Interacting with the kids is nice. This is the first time I\u2019ve been on stage with so many kids at the same time. I\u2019ve done children\u2019s theatre, but that\u2019s adults acting for children. Here, the kids are our fellow actors. That\u2019s very exciting. And they\u2019re brilliant, you know! They\u2019re really amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: Some of the kids are veterans!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: Ya, they\u2019ve been in more pantos than me! [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s it been like working with this cast?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: Everyone is amazingly talented! When we have nothing to do, we jam. It\u2019s fantastic. We\u2019ve also realised that the girls love the humour and the guys are very philosophical in this pantomime. When asked about their favourite line in the show, the guys all came out with very cheem<\/em> answers. Mine is: \u2018Oh my people, how long has it been since we spoke?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: That\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0a wonderful line. But the girls all like the lame lines. My favourite line is, \u2018Is your mother a graduate?\u2019 [laughs] I love it! And Candice de Rozario\u2019s favourite is \u2018When the boat reaches the harbour, automatic self-adjustment to straight\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em> has been playing for just over a week. What can audiences expect when they come to the show?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

KAY SIU: I think they\u2019ll be very entertained, and that they\u2019ll love the music. I find all the tunes very hummable. My favourite song keeps changing, because the music is so good. The story\u2019s actually quite a simple one, but I think we\u2019ve managed to make it engaging. The moral of the story is quite emotional. I\u2019ve not come across a pantomime that comes with such an uncontrollable release of emotion. In one of the final scenes, set to the song Open Up<\/em>, we all still cry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUDREY: I\u2019m still feeling it, with every performance. When Kay Siu goes into his solo, we are sometimes weeping so badly that we can hardly sing! Over the years, I\u2019ve been a panto audience member myself. I hope that the audience will find that it\u2019s slightly different this year. They\u2019ll find that it\u2019s very touching, and that the pantomime has evolved a bit over the years. It\u2019s very refreshing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emperor and Empress, husband and wife, young lovers, bickering married couple \u2013 Lim Kay Siu and Audrey Luo play out one of the wackiest and most surprisingly poignant love stories you\u2019ll see on the Singapore stage this year. W!LD TIMES chats with them about finding the softer sides of their characters in The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34075,"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":[338,371,359],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34074"}],"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=34074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}