The closing show for the NUS Arts Festival this year could not possibly be anything lesser than a collaborative piece of work by Edith Podesta (Life! Theatre Awards 2011 winner), Brian Gothong Tan (Young Artist Awardee 2012) and Adrian Tan (Nominee for Best Lighting Design at Life! Theatre Awards 2011). Played by local consummate talents, NUS students and alumni, the acting was almost flawless that one would have thought these were all professionals who had tons of experience under their belts.
The three professional actors were well-casted, and the stylist definitely played up their physical attributes as best for their roles. Tim Nga and Oon Shu An did not fail to deliver as CM Tan and Faith Lim-Tan, initially as a young happy couple in a love bubble and then later growing distant. Eugene Tan deserves a whole sentence for himself; he makes a terribly good drag queen, from the expressions to the general aura he gives off, that one would think he is merely a rather large woman with masculine features. The using of a drag queen probably upped the comedic factor of Con$umed, on top of other cliques with proven track records such as the money-driven insensitive lawyer and a verbose Indian security guard with a heavy accent.
Despite the main characters being the “professional cast”, it was a breath of fresh air to see the rest of the cast given as much opportunities to shine. Some of the cast had heavier accents, and if that came in the way, they maneuvered it so artfully that it gelled with the characters they played. Regardless if it were part of superb directing or suitable casting, the obviously multi-lingual cast and their accents did not get in the way, and so kudos to that.
Some parts of Con$umed deserve a special mention and one would be the retail pitch which Amanda Aw, Rachel Phua, Prasanthi Ram, Jean Toh and Mary Wong totally brought it in an incredible tight scene as the retail staff working up a frenzy of scientific, wacky, evidence-based dialogue on how people consume. Others would be the creative use of other media to inform audience of happenings via newspaper cuttings, announcements, advertisements, such as the short video featuring the Extra Juicies (Fauzi Aziz and Jaryl George Solomon) and Bella (Eugene Tan) mocking an actual advertisement of a shopping sale, slow-motion running and jostling each other to the overtures of a popular symphony.
A devise-piece, Con$umed was made with improvisation of research on actual business facts and figures, making the lines spoken by each character realistic, and suitable for a topic such as “consumption” in Singapore. Gaining higher usage in local theatre, it is understood that the actors onstage are not only vehicles for the words but perhaps also the ones contributed to the ideas being thrown around. Therefore, though the storyline came across as rather simplistic, the content brought in with each scene was actually deep, and even deeper if one were to look into the symbolism of items, even names used.
Take the retail center by the Tans for example. Named ‘Behemoth’, which really means ‘monster’, it was indeed a place where tragedy was bred for the couple: the store which led to CM Tan’s kidnap and eventual death. One of which fed off the suffering of women and children from underdeveloped countries far away, one where manipulation and indirect cheating of customers spurred its growth. They bred a monster, oh the horrors. And it is thus possible that the scriptwriter stuck to a “more typical” main storyline for a less cluttered script, because of all the other details fighting to get attention within the 100 minutes.
Set design and costume wise, there was a healthy balance of flamboyancy and blander-every day clothes. Bella and her extra-juicy friends decked in their over-the-top lady gaga-ish clothes complemented the “more tasteful” outfits of Faith Lim and work wear of the others. The creative team also did fabulous in the opening scene being shown on a house-shaped screen and then having the Tans exit from the house, giving an illusion of some dimensionality onstage.
Apart from a few excusable line slips which were not out rightly noticeable, Con$umed was in overall a good play, though perhaps, more stage- time could be used to develop on changes in CM Tan’s behavior after taking on his role as CEO of Behemoth, such as increased anger management issues, or even serious cardiovascular health problems, that he would be viewed as susceptible to succumbing to a heart attack, for his sudden demise and ending of Con$umed was too abrupt.