{"id":35367,"date":"2013-03-01T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=35367"},"modified":"2021-06-02T12:43:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T04:43:00","slug":"glen-goei-talks-earnest-ly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/glen-goei-talks-earnest-ly\/","title":{"rendered":"Glen Goei talks Earnest-ly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who came up with the idea of re-staging Earnest?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always something that Ivan and I come up with together \u2013 we see each other all the time, so we\u2019re talking shop all the time. A lot of people, after every other show that we do, come up to us and say \u2018When are you re-staging Earnest<\/em>?\u2019 or \u2018We\u2019ve heard so much about Earnest<\/em>, when are you bringing it back again?\u2019 Just the huge number of people who\u2019ve told us that \u2013 we thought we\u2019d do it again while it was still fresh in people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the groundbreaking decision to stage it with an all-male cast.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always thought it\u2019s such a funny play lah! But I felt it was important to give it an extra twist. For the longest time, I just couldn\u2019t think of how to do it. Then I had a \u2018eureka!\u2019 moment and I said to Ivan, \u2018I\u2019m ready to do Earnest<\/em> now, and you shall play Bracknell.\u2019 And he said, \u2018But of course!\u2019 But then I said, \u2018On the condition that you don\u2019t wear a dress.\u2019 I thought that was a nice twist to it, because everyone would be expecting him to wear a dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My idea was to have an all-male cast, where none of the female characters are in drag. I felt that would somehow sensationalise the play or cheapen it. For me, it\u2019s not about men dressing up in ladies\u2019 clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the gay subtext that many people saw in the 2009 production?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

That layer \u2013 I didn\u2019t see it! I didn\u2019t see it because I suppose I live it every day. Most of my friends are gay, and for me, all of that is just natural. It\u2019s part and parcel of my life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course the play can be read on many, many other levels, and audiences get different things and critics get different things from it. The artist may not have consciously intended for those reactions from those audiences or reviewers and yet it doesn\u2019t mean that they weren\u2019t there. It means it was subliminal and unconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In retrospect, then, do you think your subconscious played a part in your decision to stage Earnest<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the context of Earnest <\/em>four years ago, there was a campaign to repeal Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code. I was involved in that campaign. What the Parliament did was, instead of repealing it, they actually took out the clause which banned heterosexuals from having anal sex and kept the law against homosexuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think that I decided to do Earnest<\/em> as a response to that \u2013 it certainly wasn\u2019t a conscious thing. But that was the context of what was happening in my life at the time, and I felt angry that this was happening. Instead of repealing 377A, they made it worse by discriminating against homosexuals. Having been born and brought up as a Singaporean, I was just angry and sad that I and my friends, who make up a significant minority in Singapore\u2019s landscape, are still not recognised and given the dignity to live and to choose who we love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, to some extent, I suppose that I was putting my life onstage with Earnest<\/em>. I have my friends around on weekends, we read poetry, sing songs around the piano, or dance and have a laugh. We just do things to celebrate art and culture. I don’t just exist in the shadows, in the bars at Tanjong Pagar. There is another side to being gay. I suppose it was like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How closely are you hewing to the first production?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We won’t fix what’s not broken. There won\u2019t be many changes, other than having Lim Kay Siu play Reverend Chasuble and bringing in the new string ensemble. They\u2019ve been handpicked and mentored by the T\u2019ang Quartet, and they\u2019re called The Ensemble Dimension Players. They\u2019re young, passionate and very easy on the eye \u2013 like a Super Junior T’ang Quartet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you hoping the audience will take with them after watching Earnest<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When I first decided I wanted to do Earnest<\/em> and read the script again after many years, I could just hear Oscar Wilde\u2019s voice in every single character – even the women. I really wanted this voice to be heard. I wanted the audience to share in my enjoyment of listening to his voice, his cleverness and humour. What you leave the theatre with is Oscar Wilde\u2019s brilliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your opinion, what makes a show a W!LD RICE show?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Hopkins used to tell me that you treat the audience like your enemy and every night, you go out onstage and it\u2019s a battle between you and your audience. It\u2019s your job to try to win the battle i.e., to win them over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t like to see it that way. For me, the audience are not my enemies but my guests. I\u2019ve invited them to my party, so I should jolly well work damn hard as their host to make sure they have a good time. I try to make sure everyone\u2019s included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that\u2019s something Ivan and I really believe in, and we work hard in our shows to do that. We\u2019ve never really talked about it, it\u2019s an unspoken thing that we share. But that, I think, is the signature of a W!LD RICE show \u2013 the fact that we work so hard to include the audience. So it\u2019s not about us entertaining you, no \u2013 it\u2019s a dialogue. It\u2019s about making a connection. It’s exciting and visceral. That\u2019s the magic of theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s why we continue doing what we do despite all the challenges. That connection with our audience? That\u2019s our reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What prompted your move from onstage to backstage?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nothing in particular \u2013 I\u2019ve always directed, since I was eleven years old. School plays in ACS. No one else wanted to direct or play the lead roles, so I wound up doing both. And then after doing M. Butterfly <\/em>in the West End, I realised that my range as an actor is quite limited. I could act certain roles well, but my range was small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to be more in control of my career and my destiny and my art, and I\u2019d always directed anyway. So I focused more on directing. In any case there are many more actors nowadays who can fulfil the roles in plays I want to direct. I think my character really suits directing: I\u2019m kind of bossy. I have my ideas and I\u2019m very, very clear about what I want. Even so, I don’t claim to know everything. I like to make it a collaborative affair where I\u2019m always open to my actors\u2019 suggestions and their opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your next project after Earnest<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The next thing I\u2019m directing is Cook A Pot Of Curry<\/em>, which is part of the In The Spotlight: Alfian Sa\u2019at <\/em>season. It\u2019s a new play. Then we have the W!LD RICE Fundraising Ball in October that Ivan and I co-direct every year. After that comes Jack And The Beansprout<\/em>, which I think I\u2019m co-directing with Ivan as well. So I\u2019ve got my plate full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also working on a film script with Haresh Sharma called Yellow Flowers<\/em>. We\u2019ve found a producer, we\u2019ve found the money \u2013 we\u2019re now refining the script. Broadly, it\u2019s about the sacrifices made by a single mother for her son, who\u2019s got HIV. It\u2019s easier to do it on film [rather than in the theatre] because there are so many different locations in this story, and a lot of the dialogue happens in the protagonist\u2019s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m directing the first W!LD RICE show of next year\u2019s season too \u2013 it\u2019s my adaptation of Pygmalion<\/em>. I\u2019m working with a young female writer, a graduate of the Tisch Creative Writing course. Our protagonist is a Tiger Beer girl who’s working at the Esplanade\u2019s Makansutra. It\u2019s going to be called My Fair Ah Lian<\/em>… get it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, W!LD RICE staged the world\u2019s first all-male production of Oscar Wilde\u2019s The Importance Of Being Earnest. The production, directed by our associate artistic director Glen Goei, was a smash hit. We talk to Glen about re-staging Earnest, putting his life up onstage, and what makes a W!LD RICE show so special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35368,"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":[136,45,141],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35367"}],"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=35367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}