“Utterly hilarious. Molière would probably have had a chuckle.”
- The Straits Times
2024
After our Covid-interrupted first run (for that sob story, click here), we returned for a re-staging in 2024.
This was our first table read.
Clearly, we’re still having fun :)
I played Cléante again
Though my wig was a little greyer, 2 years on.
They say it takes a village to stage a play.
Here’s our village, at our final warmup before our last show.
Audiences loved it!
This is us taking our final bow.
2022
All photos courtesy of Wild Rice.
I played Cléante
Cléante is the play’s raisonneur - the character who voices the central theme, philosophy, or point of view of the work. He’s the voice of reason, and spends the play trying to get people to think logically.
Most in need of his help is Orgon (played by Ivan Heng), the patriarch of the family who mistakes Tartuffe as a holy man, and falls victim to his devious schemes.
One of my great joys working on Tartfuffe was being able to collaborate with Alvin Chiam, our Movement Director. Alvin introduced us to techniques from Philippe Gaulier, Commedia Dell’arte, and various other disciplines in his broad repertoire.
As you can see, it’s hard, sweaty work! And a lot of fun!
This was Wild Rice’s first big show since the pandemic.
In April 2022, the restrictions on audience sizes were lifted, and we were finally allowed to sell tickets to every seat in the house!
It was my first time back on stage at the Wild Rice Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre at Funan since 2020 when we did The Importance of Being Earnest. Two years felt like forever.
We took every precaution, followed every guideline, sanitised religiously, kept non-performers masked, and dreamed of welcoming audiences back to full houses.
We caught COVID anyway :(
We opened on a Thursday. We did Friday night’s show. Saturday night was supposed to be our gala performance, but by that morning, the news has started to come in.
All in all, our director, most of the cast and many of the crew, plus office and production staff caught COVID over the course of this production. The theatre was deep-cleaned. We had to cancel the weekend, and the next week of shows.
We kept our spirits up over WhatsApp, sending each other memes and COVID remedies, and quoting lines from the show.
We got better. We got back on our feet. We re-opened.
Audiences loved it!
We had so many people come up and tell us how much they enjoyed the show! And also the experience of being back at the theatre, being able to laugh together in the same room.
And as we were taking our bows at curtain call of our final matinee performance on 1 May, this happened:
An audience member tells us what they really think of the show!
Performing Tartuffe with this amazing company is my specific definition of #blessed :)