August, 2012
The story behind Singapore's most successful play
Once upon a time, there
was a Peranakan
woman named Emily
Gan. Her parents died
when she was young,
so her relatives married her off to a
rich man when she was just 14 years
old. Slowly, she learned to control the
other members of her new family, so
that she was the one in charge. But,
when she grew older, her loved ones
abandoned her. She was left alone, in
her crumbling mansion.
This is the story of Singapore's most famous play, Emily of Emerald Hill. It was written in 1982. Since then, it has been staged over 300 times in seven different countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada.
Thousands of people have watched it, including museum director Alan Chong. "It is highly entertaining," he says. "It is safe to say that Emily helped create the new interest in Peranakan culture that led to The Little Nonya and even to the Peranakan Museum."
This is why he decided to organise an exhibition at the Peranakan Museum called "Emily of Emerald Hill: Singaporean Identity on Stage". The show looks at the history of English-language theatre in Singapore, as well as wayang Peranakan, the traditional theatre form of the Peranakans.
Visitors can also learn about Stella Kon. She is the writer of the play, but she is still amazed by its success. "It's as if I had a child 30 years ago, and now it's all grown up," she says.
Struggling for acceptance
Like Emily, Ms Kon was raised in a traditional Peranakan household. She stayed with her grandmother, her uncles, her aunts and her cousins in a big house in Emerald Hill.
As a little girl, she was already writing plays. In primary school, she and her friends performed one of them: a very funny Singaporean version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, called Lo Mee Oh and Tzu Lee At. As she grew older, she went on writing plays for children. Some have been collected in a book called 9 Classroom Plays.
In the 1970s, she started writing plays for grown-ups. People liked them. She even won the National Playwriting Competition twice. Yet, no-one was willing to stage her scripts. Singapore had very few English language theatre groups back then, and most of them never did plays by Singaporean writers. When she approached directors, they usually made the excuse that her plays had too many characters.
She came up with a solution to her problem. She would write a monologue: a play in which there is only one character. She named this character Emily, and based it on her grandmother, Polly Tan.
A strong woman
Grandma Polly was a very strong woman. Her husband had died during the war, and afterwards, for almost 20 years, she was the head of the household. She was famous for her cooking: her delicious babi buah keluak and her sweet corn ice cream. However, she often treated her grandsons much better than her granddaughters.
Ms Kon wrote about all these things in her play. She also showed how her grandmother was able to code-switch - how she was able to switch between formal and informal English when she was speaking to different people. (This is a very Singaporean skill!)
The play won the 1983 National Playwriting Competition. But, once again, Singaporean directors refused to stage it. They now said the monologue would be too long for a single actress to perform.
Luckily, one director disagreed. His name was Chin San Sooi, and he was from Malaysia. He remembers being extremely moved by the script. "I thought this was not only a play for Singapore or Malaysia. This was a play for the whole world."
Success in Malaysia
In 1984, he staged the play in Kuala Lumpur, where it was a great success. He also volunteered to bring his production to Singapore, since no-one else wanted to perform it here. This was very embarrassing for our country, so the organisers of the Singapore Arts Festival paid a director to stage it in 1985.
Finally, Singaporeans had a chance to see Emily themselves. They loved it. Many of them realised for the first time that local plays could be just as good as foreign ones. Some were also inspired to start their own theatre companies and stage new Singaporean plays.
Since then, Singapore's theatre scene has grown stronger and stronger. Hundreds of wonderful new plays have been written and performed. But, audiences keep on wanting to see Emily again. This is why it has been staged so many times.
Next year, Ms Kon promises that her fans will get to see Emily in a completely new way. She has rewritten her play as a musical, so that people can enjoy the story through songs as well as speeches. In the mean time, she is extremely touched by the Peranakan Museum exhibition. Her favourite part is a display of her family's furniture, based on the living room of her old home at Emerald Hill. She likes to go there and remember her happy childhood, playing in the big house with all her cousins.
This article by NG YI-SHENG appears in the August 2012 issue of What's Up.
This is the story of Singapore's most famous play, Emily of Emerald Hill. It was written in 1982. Since then, it has been staged over 300 times in seven different countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada.
Thousands of people have watched it, including museum director Alan Chong. "It is highly entertaining," he says. "It is safe to say that Emily helped create the new interest in Peranakan culture that led to The Little Nonya and even to the Peranakan Museum."
This is why he decided to organise an exhibition at the Peranakan Museum called "Emily of Emerald Hill: Singaporean Identity on Stage". The show looks at the history of English-language theatre in Singapore, as well as wayang Peranakan, the traditional theatre form of the Peranakans.
Visitors can also learn about Stella Kon. She is the writer of the play, but she is still amazed by its success. "It's as if I had a child 30 years ago, and now it's all grown up," she says.
Struggling for acceptance
Like Emily, Ms Kon was raised in a traditional Peranakan household. She stayed with her grandmother, her uncles, her aunts and her cousins in a big house in Emerald Hill.
As a little girl, she was already writing plays. In primary school, she and her friends performed one of them: a very funny Singaporean version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, called Lo Mee Oh and Tzu Lee At. As she grew older, she went on writing plays for children. Some have been collected in a book called 9 Classroom Plays.
In the 1970s, she started writing plays for grown-ups. People liked them. She even won the National Playwriting Competition twice. Yet, no-one was willing to stage her scripts. Singapore had very few English language theatre groups back then, and most of them never did plays by Singaporean writers. When she approached directors, they usually made the excuse that her plays had too many characters.
She came up with a solution to her problem. She would write a monologue: a play in which there is only one character. She named this character Emily, and based it on her grandmother, Polly Tan.
A strong woman
Grandma Polly was a very strong woman. Her husband had died during the war, and afterwards, for almost 20 years, she was the head of the household. She was famous for her cooking: her delicious babi buah keluak and her sweet corn ice cream. However, she often treated her grandsons much better than her granddaughters.
Ms Kon wrote about all these things in her play. She also showed how her grandmother was able to code-switch - how she was able to switch between formal and informal English when she was speaking to different people. (This is a very Singaporean skill!)
The play won the 1983 National Playwriting Competition. But, once again, Singaporean directors refused to stage it. They now said the monologue would be too long for a single actress to perform.
Luckily, one director disagreed. His name was Chin San Sooi, and he was from Malaysia. He remembers being extremely moved by the script. "I thought this was not only a play for Singapore or Malaysia. This was a play for the whole world."
Success in Malaysia
In 1984, he staged the play in Kuala Lumpur, where it was a great success. He also volunteered to bring his production to Singapore, since no-one else wanted to perform it here. This was very embarrassing for our country, so the organisers of the Singapore Arts Festival paid a director to stage it in 1985.
Finally, Singaporeans had a chance to see Emily themselves. They loved it. Many of them realised for the first time that local plays could be just as good as foreign ones. Some were also inspired to start their own theatre companies and stage new Singaporean plays.
Since then, Singapore's theatre scene has grown stronger and stronger. Hundreds of wonderful new plays have been written and performed. But, audiences keep on wanting to see Emily again. This is why it has been staged so many times.
Next year, Ms Kon promises that her fans will get to see Emily in a completely new way. She has rewritten her play as a musical, so that people can enjoy the story through songs as well as speeches. In the mean time, she is extremely touched by the Peranakan Museum exhibition. Her favourite part is a display of her family's furniture, based on the living room of her old home at Emerald Hill. She likes to go there and remember her happy childhood, playing in the big house with all her cousins.
This article by NG YI-SHENG appears in the August 2012 issue of What's Up.