By Alex Li
A few ways of emerging from Pulau Ujong / Island at the End
1. Imagine— no, know that everything around you is alive. Because you forget. Stop to marvel at the tiny flowers by the pavements. Smell them. Try and find their names.
2. Wonder why you’ve never thought much of these things. The rainforest trees, sand, the monsoon. Birds, monkeys, flower and fruit. You claim to want to give voice to the world around you. How can that portrayal of the world be complete without your acknowledgement of nature?
3. Reflect on your role. You work as an actor. A writer. After the show, you run into a couple of friends who work in video production. You’ve done theater with them. They wonder why the play couldn’t have been an online short. You think: because the theater requires its audience put in more work. Show up some place, turn off their phones, hear and listen: to rain, to silence, to falling flower petals. Pulau Ujong… had to be a work of theater because it required that special mode of paying attention, of shutting out the noise around.
3.1 Ask: “What’s it got to do with me?” Counter: The warmth of sunlight on your skin. The bright scent of jasmine. A gentle breeze. Polar bears who belong in the arctic. Hornbills building their nests. With the freedom to do what they do. Love who they love— because shouldn’t they?
3.2 Talk to other people. An environmentalist friend hated the show. They knew the real people that Pulau Ujong… was based on and thought the show mischaracterized them. You return again to your memory of the show, how there was a body of water thrust downstage. How it began with the ensemble of actors giving embodied voice to Alfian Sa’at. How he mused on the back wall of the stage being wood repurposed from old opera stages, and how that wood had, even before its operatic life (and its current life at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theater), a first life as trees. You recall how the actors took turns to embody different voices, an ornithologist, a banyan tree, Inuka the polar bear, and the Malayan tiger amongst others. Some were eccentric personalities, some more low-key. You didn’t think then they were caricatures, but now you wonder whether more could have been done, to represent them. You wonder whether some voices have been left out, or favored over others. You wonder at what point the tricks got old. Recall the campy theatrics, where the embodied trumpet and banyan trees wore big ball gowns and dreadlocks. And how they spoke to you sassily or mimed entire monologues flamboyantly. Recall the rhythm of the show, how each actor would come on as something say their lengthy lines, put their feet in that water, come out, exit, rinse and repeat, without saying much that was new.
4. Call forth one of the last lines in the play: “I’ve said this before and I’m sorry to take up too much of your time”. Think: when was before? What’s this? Did the playwright know that Pulau Ujong… would take up quite a lot of time, and that most people would find it too long, and so wrote an apology into the text? Did Edith Podesta, the director, make Al-Matin Yatim, the actor, say the line above as sincerely as possible, to communicate the earnestness of their enterprise? So that we’d forgive their clumsiness and shortcomings? And perhaps their greenwashing? And was I, as the audience, so taken with the environment issue, that I overlooked, and perhaps forgave, how trite it might have been?
5. I realize here that the ethics of theater have come into play. In attempting to make a work of documentary theater about our natural environment, W!LD RICE could have probed deeper into their responsibilities. What does a theater company owe its audience? And what does a theater company owe the environment? At the end of Pulau Ujong…, Podesta employs the same trick as in the beginning where the company of actors all appear in the same costume, as actor-clones of a real-life person, a geography teacher. The teacher asks: What is our duty? In my seat in the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theater I think about how I think of myself as climate conscious. Adjectives come to mind: liberal, reformist, informed. For the people who already know about the ways in which our climate has been suffering and have been advocating for it, there is nothing new here. We should all be making climate conscious, carbon neutral theater. We should have advocated for the environment sooner. We need to do it more, do it always. We need not only to ensure we portray diverse stories and perspectives, but to make sure that the portrayal is honest, original, new. For myself, and what I’ve done for the environment, and for W!LD RICE, we haven’t done enough.
Writer’s Statement
Each response published on Critics Circle Blog is paired with a statement from the writer where their politic, entry point, purpose, and intended audience is made clear.
This response to Pulau Ujong / Island at the End is an attempt to work through the complexities of being an audience member to a work of documentary theater. As someone who goes to the theater frequently in Singapore, I implicitly compare works I’ve seen and think about their place in the larger “scene”. This response captures some of that process, and is intended for audiences wanting to explore and discuss Singapore Theater, Political Theater, Ecocriticism, and the ethics of artistic representation.
This response to ‘Pulau Ujong / Island at the End‘ was written at the invitation of W!LD RICE, who provided our writers with complimentary tickets in order to write the review.
Further Responses
Adeeb Fazah on Critics Circle Blog
Dia Hakim on Critics Circle Blog
Heng Jia Min on Critics Circle Blog
Yeo Min Hui (trans. Neo Hai Bin) for 剧读 thea.preter
Ong Sor Fern in The Straits Times
Yaiza Canopoli in Arts Republic
Naeem Kapadia at Crystalwords
Pulau Ujong / Island at the End
Venue: Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre
Performed: 15 Sept – 2 Oct, 2022
Producing Company: W!LD RICE
Playwright: Alfian Sa’at
Director: Edith Podesta
Cast: Al-Matin Yatim, Ryan Ang, Koh Wan Ching, Krish Natarajan, Siti Khalijah Zainal
Set Designer: Johanna Pan
Associate Set Designer: Kendrick Tay
Lighting Designer: Steve Kwek
Sound Designer: Jing Ng
Multimedia Designer: He Shuming
Costume Designer: Max Tan
Hair Designer: Ashley Lim
Make-up Designer: Bobbie Ng
Producer: Koh Bee Bee
Head, Production: Melissa Teoh
Technical Manager: David Sagaya
Production Coordinator: Angela Ee
Stage Manager: Marilyn Chew
Assistant Stage Manager: Anne Lee
Stage Assistants: Shamirul Aizan, Gwendolyn Tey
Technicians: Muhammad Azhar Bin Azman, Ahmad Hafriz Bin Berkath
Wardrobe Manager: Theresa Chan
Dressers: Nur Fatin Nabilah Mohd Rafie, Nurul Izazi
Hair Assistant: Michelle Wai
Followspot Operators: Muhammad Zickry, Syed Almahdali
Sign Language: Coach Shalini Gidwani
Lighting Operator: Jayant Daniel Singh
Multimedia Operator: Amirul Abdullah
Research Assistant: Syahmi Hashim
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