Wild Rice’s Cooling Off Day: A review

Technically there should have been this air of anticipation and excitement before I head for a play which has a unique name and would be hard for anyone to disassociate it from politics.

Cooling Off Day eh?

It’s a potpourri of narratives from all walks of life – not just Singaporeans, I must add – on their views about the recently concluded General Elections. For example, there was a 92-year-old chicken rice seller who talked about how immigrants spent weeks on an offshore island had the chance to bathe only once in two weeks, a 35-year-old civil servant whose love for living in the east bordered on the obsessive, and a middle-age Malay woman who generated laughs about the tudung.

First, the narrative was candid and earnest. On most parts, they were straight-forward and direct. One could feel that they were the exact words that were spouted by the people interviewed by the playwright. There were notable political heavyweights among those who were featured as well and it would be not too much of a challenge in figuring out who Vincent, Soh Lung and Jeanette were. The funny and entertaining bits were punctuated with the serious narratives. It wasn’t all just for laughs and the humour but the motivations for some to go into politics were enlightening revelations. At times, you could hear a pin drop (just minutes after a hilarious scene) when certain words, issues and political events were talked about. The air was filled with tension.

There were heart-rending moments too. The 25-year-old Malay nurse’s sharing on the plight of the “middle-lower class” reflected the struggles and desires of a certain portion of the populace. It also put the spotlight momentarily on our public healthcare system with a comment about our “C” class wards. Then, there were the words in Malay, translated by the nurse, from an old patient about how “this was no longer our place”.

Then, there was the 28-year-old Indian sex worker. Her scene came after another one of the hilarious scenes and the audience was riding on the humour momentum with a few tentative giggles when she came on. Yet, her words were strongly reflective of the reasons for the ruling party’s votes. She talked about her being driven out of the house by her father and then, likened her vote for the ruling party to how she still considered and respected her father as her “papa”.

Jeanette’s talk about the geographical confusion that came about due to the redrawing of electoral boundaries and how it affected the community spirit was a revelation too. With the National Day celebrations still fresh in people’s mind, her point about one should grow to love his community first before he could come to love his country was a clever retort against the ruling party’s incessant prod for people to put the country before themselves.

Yet, for all of its discourse, there was one undertone about “that old man”. It was first mentioned in Soh Lung’s first appearance. Then, it was the motivation behind Vincent’s decision to enter politics before the concluding scene, i.e., Soh Lung’s final words which were to wrap things up. If anything and going by the works of the playwright, this was where his voice – which simmered throughout the entire production – was the “loudest”.

For all of the playwright’s reasonable work in being the “editor” of the narratives, what stood out the most was the direction. There was a lot of improvisation to be done with a cast of six and a simple set (six white chairs with six black boxes which held the props) but each scene was so carefully and artistically crafted that the entire play went beyond mere improvisation. The props were carefully chosen so that there were not just there to support the scene but to add to the discourse. One example was the Alex scene, which had one of the cast members wearing that much-derided swimming trunks of the national water-polo team. It added a touch to it and “said” something on its own. The use of lighting was excellent as it complemented the mood of each narrative.

However, for all its worth, it felt as though the play had way too much humour. While there was fair and interesting representation of views about the Elections, the political discourse was not strong enough. The issues of society, races (maybe a bit of a taboo here) and community merely skimmed the surface or were clouded out by the motivation to milk laughs from an audience. Case in point was the scene for the 42-year-old Malay actress acted out by two actors. There was very little political discourse (or maybe it was because I had problems detecting it) and was seemingly out of place.

The play ended on a rather soft note. It would have been better if there was a strong and forceful narrative or one that could provoke the audience to consider certain political issues or implications from the Elections. The director did his work there with the white and red chairs, but to end with Soh Lung’s thoughts about “the old man” in heaven did not do justice to the spirit of the play and what it promised. Perhaps there wasn’t one narrative strong enough for the playwright to conclude the play but there was a hint of how the tight deadline could have affected the selection.

In all, it was cool effort to tickle the audience but just about did it in terms of meeting the expectations for a strong political discourse. That is, except for arousing the curiosity of some about that one big political event in the 1980s.