{"id":8209,"date":"2020-02-13T17:01:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T09:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wr\/?p=8209"},"modified":"2020-02-28T15:29:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T07:29:51","slug":"going-wilde-with-daniel-york-loh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/going-wilde-with-daniel-york-loh\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildely Subverting Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you had told Daniel York\nLoh 15 years ago that The Importance of\nBeing Earnest<\/em> would be one of the highlights of his career, he would\nprobably have laughed in your face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United Kingdom, where\nDaniel grew up, Oscar Wilde\u2019s outrageously funny play has become a profoundly\nfamiliar classic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone knows it\nbackwards,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cThey can pretty much sit in the theatre and recite\nthe lines along with the actors. It\u2019s why I haven\u2019t actually watched The Importance of Being Earnest <\/em>in\nBritain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More to the point, Wilde\u2019s\nexquisite comedy of manners seemed like the kind of play in which Daniel \u2013 an\nactor of mixed Chinese Singaporean and British descent \u2013 would never be cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest, I had immense\nhang-ups about The Importance of Being Earnest\n<\/em>when I was younger,\u201d he confesses. \u201cI was guilty of thinking that it was a\nsuperficial play for posh white people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel still remembers how he\nfelt walking past Theatre Royal in Bath, where he grew up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very big, rich\nVictorian theatre, and plays like The\nImportance of Being Earnest<\/em> run there a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to look up\nat the theatre and think, \u2018They wouldn\u2019t let me in there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His impression of The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> being \u201cthe preserve of white, middle-class people\u201d was only solidified during his drama school days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a very posh old woman\ncome in to teach us acting,\u201d Daniel recalls. \u201cOne day, she asked us to read The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> \u2013 even\nas she told us, \u2018None of you will ever do this play, because you simply don\u2019t\nhave the class for it.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Daniel is having the time of his life performing in The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> in WILD RICE’s new theatre! He’s seen here with fellow cast members Lim Kay Siu and Hossan Leong. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Wilde Act of Defiance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, Daniel only\ndelved deeper into The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> when he was first\ncast in WILD RICE\u2019s award-winning production of it over a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when he realised that\nthe play isn\u2019t simply a comedy aimed squarely at the funny bone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many more\nlayers to it beyond its many jokes and punchlines,\u201d he observes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also about identity and\nbelonging. It asks questions like \u2018Who am I? Where do I belong? Where do I come\nfrom?\u2019 These are almost primal concerns.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more powerfully, WILD\nRICE\u2019s production overturns every assumption you could make about this play:\nfrom race and class to gender and sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking a story that\nthe colonial English classes have always claimed as their own, and we\u2019re\nproving that a cast full of Asian actors can tell it just as well as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even getting to speak Wilde\u2019s\nrapid-fire dialogue in the play feels \u201csubversive\u201d to Daniel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually a real stretch\nfor me,\u201d he notes. \u201cThe play features the very stylised, very elegant language\nused in those days by the upper-class elite. The proportion of the population\nin England that actually speaks like the characters in this play is tiny!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou also have to factor in Wilde\u2019s extraordinary, almost other-worldly wit, and the complexities of his sentence structure. Not to mention the fact that Wilde was actually Irish (and extremely proud of it).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m not sure anyone in the\nworld has ever spoken quite like that,\u201d Daniel concludes. \u201cAnd the English\nmiddle classes certainly shouldn’t feel they’re the only ones who are entitled\nto on stage!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, this\nproduction has won acclaim \u2013 and some controversy \u2013 for having an entirely male\ncast of actors perform every role in Wilde\u2019s romantic comedy of errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat, too, is an act of\ndefiance, because homosexuality is still criminalised in Singapore,\u201d Daniel\npoints out. \u201cIt\u2019s been over a decade since we first staged this show, and it still\nfeels like quite an important statement for us to be making here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sometimes wonder what\nOscar Wilde would\u2019ve made of this all-male production on the other side of the\nplanet \u2013 and I think he would have loved it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
All smiles after the gala night performance of The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>!
(L-R) Lim Kay Siu, Daniel York Loh, Janice Koh, Lionel Yeo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Going Wilde with WILD RICE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other joys for\nDaniel in returning to The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> for the fifth\ntime \u2013 one of which is getting to work with director Glen Goei again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGlen gave me my first-ever\njob when I got out of drama school in London,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cI answered an ad\nfor a play called Porcelain<\/em> at the\nRoyal Court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an amazing moment of\nconnection for me \u2013 up until my audition, I had never met anyone outside of my\nown family who was from Singapore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel is also thrilled to be\nreuniting on stage with WILD RICE\u2019s Founding Artistic Director, Ivan Heng, who\nplays the formidable Lady Bracknell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIvan is a living legend,\u201d\nsays Daniel matter-of-factly. \u201cSingaporeans should be incredibly proud of him\nand everything he\u2019s achieved for the local arts scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s especially impressed by\nWILD RICE\u2019s new theatre in Funan \u2013 a performing arts venue purpose-built and\ndesigned by artists, for artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is one of the most\nbeautiful theatres in the world, and Singapore should be so proud of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve performed in the\ntheatre it\u2019s modelled on \u2013 the Royal Shakespeare Company\u2019s Swan Theatre in\nStratford-Upon-Avon \u2013 and that\u2019s easily one of the most exciting theatres in\nthe world. WILD RICE\u2019s theatre is actually better <\/em>in terms of its\nstate-of-the-art design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that this theatre is\nalso an \u201cacoustic marvel\u201d has given Daniel the opportunity to experiment with\nhis performance in The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn earlier productions, I\nwanted to find a more subtle way into some of my lines,\u201d explains Daniel. \u201cBut\nit was impossible to do. Everything had to be played very loud, or the lines\nwould get lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, however, there are\nparts of the show where we\u2019re literally just talking to each other. There\u2019s a\ndifferent quality to our performances that has been really exciting for us to\ndiscover as a cast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving now performed the\nplay in the new space, I would say it\u2019s everything I hoped for and more,\u201d he\nadds. \u201cWe\u2019ve all found layers and complexities in the lines and characters that\nare totally unique to this particular iteration of the production \u2013 not to\nmention a bundle more laughs!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, Daniel couldn\u2019t\nbe happier to return to this production of a play he never thought he would be\ncast in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the completion of\na journey. To get to come back to Singapore and perform this play with a cast\nfull of Asian actors, for an audience full of Asian faces, in one of the very\nbest theatres in the world \u2013 there\u2019s nothing more powerful or moving than that.\nIt\u2019s absolutely extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, Daniel York Loh never thought he\u2019d perform in a play like The Importance of Being Earnest<\/i>. He shares with us what it means for him to revisit Oscar Wilde\u2019s classic comedy in WILD RICE\u2019s new home in Funan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Going Wilde with Daniel York Loh","_seopress_titles_desc":"Growing up, Daniel York Loh never thought he\u2019d perform in a play like The Importance of Being Earnest. He shares with us what it means for him to revisit Oscar Wilde\u2019s classic comedy in WILD RICE\u2019s new home in Funan. ","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","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":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","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":[144,141],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}