Review by Kate Gaul
“Forked” by Jo Tan is a powerful, pacy one-woman play. Jo Tan also performs the central character to Jeanette Peh. It depicts the journey of a young Singaporean woman, Jeanette, leaving her life in Singapore behind for her dreams at a drama school in the UK. Her image is all Nortting Hill, Hugh Grant, books stores and cups of tea. Her identity fragments when she realises that she cannot be both English and Singaporean. Based on Jo Tan’s real-life experience at renowned French clown school École Philippe Gaulier, this enthralling account fiercely captures the feeling of having to pretend when you just don’t fit in. The play’s focus on grappling with (Chinese) Singaporean identity in a global mess of a world is not new but Jo Tan’s energy, good humour and grace present it afresh.
Tan, like Peh made a hard left in life, forgoing a possible law or business career to become an actor. Her father’s plans (and savings) for a business degree in Melbourne are scotched when Peh takes the money and runs to Notting Hill and dreams of becoming a star.
This is a laugh hour loud hour in the theatre. Tan is a gifted actor and brilliant mimic, and a larger cast of characters are given vitality and truth through physicality and accent. Top of the list is her extreme rendition of the French acting coach Baptiste Laroche – truth is often stranger than fiction they say, and this guy was the best – bent over his walking stick and laying down his pearls of wisdom to his class of hopefuls and demanding that they be natural and speak in their “native language” and WHY do they all choose Shakespeare for their monologues?! Jeanette Peh (our main character) speaks with a clipped British accent (she decided as a child she would excel with English and eschew learning Mandarin); there’s the Mancunian slang of Peh’s frenemy Sophie; Yum Yum (actually, Yun Yun but no one calls her that!) whose manipulation of how everyone sees her becomes he key to success; there’s Scott the sad guy from the USA who is so obviously looking for an Asian stereotype for a girlfriend.
The production is simply presented with a selection of fold out stools that represent everything from a stage to a couture handbag.
The displacement that Jeanette experiences mirrors that of Singapore in the international arena. Jeanette finds herself resisting both the residual colonial ideas of orientalism and her cynical mainland Chinese Yum Yum’s outlook that “Chinese people should help Chinese people.” Yet, when there is a casting opportunity for a television series by a director looking for a bilingual East Asian actress, Jeanette is not beyond asking Yum Yum to coach her in Mandarin,or play up to certain stereotypes. And the experience in the casting session brings the show to its climatic moment.
A terrific hour of funny and insightful writing, detailed performance with a perspective that resonates – especially as one from the Southern Hemisphere. A great privilege to see work from Singapore.
Image Supplied
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