Episode 690: Boeing Boeing

Caught Boeing Boeing with Ben Woon, Dan Leong, Kay Hwee and Thong. Ka Tsai joined us for dinner, so it was kind of like a mini-JC reunion, except we're like five years older. (Gosh, we're practically fossils!) I was wandering around Bugis Junction before dinner, and it felt less crowded than when I was last back, so I guess Illuma has helped to absorb some of the human traffic. Just as well. I hate shopping centres that are too crowded. The play's based on Marc Camoletti's French farce, so you know that's already a good start. Infidelity is, after all, très française, non? A lot of the humour is derived from the increasingly close calls that Adrian Pang and Daniel York's characters have to weather onstage, involving lots of door-slamming and anguished wringing of hands. It was Siti Khalijah's Rosa who stole the show though, every single time she appeared. What a scream! Also really loved Emma Yong's Japanese stewardess, Junko. Without spoiling the ending for people who plan to see it, it all works out in an unabashedly farcical manner. Theatre like Boeing Boeing represents the triumph of the comic over the conceptual, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and comedy is definitely one of W!ld Rice's strongest suits. It is possible to read some social commentary in the play (e.g. as Kay Hwee pointed out, both the Singaporean characters in the play were the ones toying with multiple partners, the man refusing to settle down and the woman holding out for the fattest bank account), but even without engaging Boeing Boeing at this level, it is furiously entertaining stuff.