Christine Tjia

Jun 11 - Jun 13, 2010

This iconic story brings you back the trials and struggles of a Singaporean Peranakan matriarch in the olden days - the struggle between the modern and traditional values.

The fact that Emerald Hill (Chinese: 翡翠山) really does exist in Singapore makes this performance even more real. Former home to many of the wealthy Peranakan, it is a neighbourhood and a conservation area near Newton and Orchard.

The play won the First Prize in the National Play-Writing Competition 1983. Emily is fantastically acted by the legendary Margaret Chan, who first performed the same show in 1985 and returns 25 years later (Yep! you read that right!!). And the year after, the production became the first Singaporean show to be invited to the world famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her iconic performance was voted by the Straits Times as ‘Singapore’s Newsmaker of 1985’! It was said that Emily has been presented more than a hundred times, by eight different performers, in Singapore, Malaysia, Hawaii and Edinburgh. It even became a Ministry of Education approved literature text for the local secondary schools. It has been translated into Chinese and Japanese and broadcast over Radio Iceland. A film version is under negotiation.

It was directed by Jeremiah Choy and co directed by Margaret Chan.  At the post discussion after the show, Jeremiah mentioned that with Stella Kon’s excellent script and Margaret’s experienced acting, he had nothing much to add but learn the valuable lesson of the quiet confidence and a sense of trusting the collaborators and the beauty of restraint. First time I heard a director said this!

Some audiences commented in the discussion that they can see their own past flashed in front of them. And some watched it because their mother watched the same show 25 years ago (in 1985). How cool is that! It made me feel like we are encapsulated in a seamless time capsule.

Margaret was seven months pregnant with her son Jonathan when she first performed in Singapore Drama Festival 1985. 25 years later, she returned to the same character (and this time, offered as co-director) in Singapore Arts Festival 2010 when she is now 60 - a grandmother. I tried to imagine how I would feel if I ever is in her shoes (and I said if, ever!) – the satisfaction of how your life has turned out to be, the realization of how fast time flies and the gratitude of the life you not only have but that you have lived.

I am personally very impressed and it supersedes all of my expectations. One of the very, very, VERY GOOD plays I watched in Singapore! Little did I know that this is a landmark play in the dramatic literature of Singapore.

By the time the show hits intermission, I luv it already! I don’t need to wait till the end in order to rate it. Its simplicity amazes me - only one actress (Duh! It's a monologue.), no fancy props and a simple stage of 3 ordinary panels that portrays as interactive multi media presentation. All these boils down to the script and the raw talent of the actress herself - it's either you make it or you don't.

If you hvn’t watch a monologue before, imagine this: watching a woman standing, sitting, walking or even running on an ordinary stage talking to herself or to be more exact – to the thin air for 2 long hours – laughing, crying, sighing and screaming so that you know what’s going on in Emily’s Emerald Hill. My attention span during the uni younger years are not evn that long, for crying out loud! Margaret made it so easy in drawing the audiences into her world, illustrated and painted by her rich imaginations, presented as it is in Emily’s mind and most importantly of all – she made it real. Even sitting rows away, I can feel her joy, her worries, her pain and her grief.

When Emily first appeared in Singapore, it made theatre history. When it returned 25 years later, we look back at that historic moment. As grateful as I am to be part of the historical moment, I fear that Emily will be my touchstone by which all other performances are to be measured from now on ...