By Isaac Chan (25A01B) and Jane Ng (25S03D)
“You don’t want more ah?”
Raffles Players’ SYF 2024 performance piece, an adaptation of More by Haresh Sharma, is a gripping, almost sardonic commentary on the rigid social structure in Singapore. Depicting a clinic with doctors that help patients with their woes regarding social status and mobility, the play follows a cast of characters from varying social statuses through their lives in Singapore, vibrantly brought to life by Raffles Players.
From the sass that Shampoo Girl (played by Ciara Chong En See, 25S03D) brought to the stage to the warmth and wholesomeness that Ah Huay the Cleaner (played by Chua Xin Chen, 25A01B) filled Gateway Theatre with, the spirit of the play was masterfully animated by Raffles Players, earning them their first Distinction in eight years, an accolade well deserved.
With Haresh Sharma himself, the playwright, on the judges’ panel, the pressure was on to present the work in a fresh, compelling, and novel way. Raffles Press had the exclusive opportunity of following Raffles Players backstage from the hours before the stage lights came on to the curtain call and bows.
The Sweat, Tears, and Makeup
The team conducts their final preparations on the way to Gateway Theatre
Before this performance can happen, preparation is key. After a morning of makeup applying, dry-runs and last checks, Raffles Players pile onto the bus taking them from school to Gateway Theatre. As the bus rolls down Lornie Highway, coach Mr. Rodney Olivero is on a roll of his own.
He issues a list of final reminders about movements, energy levels, and vocal techniques, from the overarching personality of the character to the minutiae of their actions. As he exhausts this list, though, he slows, and reminds them of what, really, they must do.
“The space is going to be very cold, a void,” Mr. Rodney explains. “You need to bring the warmth of your characters, and the fire of your interactions.”
Before letting Raffles Players concentrate on perfecting their parts on their own, he emphatically declares, “Love, love! It’s about love. Love, for your characters,” before muttering, “I’m gonna shut up now,” eliciting a laugh from the whole bus.
Soon, perhaps too soon, Raffles Players’ bus arrives at Gateway Theatre amidst a downpour. Up in the holding room, the cast perform vocal warmups and rehearse their lines once more, supplied with constant feedback from Mr. Rodney and the seniors.
Raffles Players takes a final mirror selfie before their performance
As the performance time draws near, Raffles Players sit in a circle, and Director Siti Zahra binte Fahrudin (24A01E) speaks up.
“Well, it’s D-Day, guys. We’re going onstage in 24 minutes. I’m very glad we’ve come together to make something that we can all be a part of, and present it to the judges.”
They go around in a circle, listing prayers they hope will be answered.
“For no costumes or props to break.”
“For my sounds to EAT!”
“To make Haresh Sharma proud.”
“For everyone to be satisfied with this performance.”
They shout a collective cry of “SUCCESS!” on three before springing into animated action. The various departments got ready to do their work, be it as part of the cast or Lights and Sounds.
In the true spirit of Murphy’s law, a prop board decided to take the adage, “Break a leg!” a little too literally, popping its wheel off right before the cast went on stage. Fortunately, a quick adjustment did the trick to fix it.
Bump-in: Showtime
The play follows the lives of a few lead characters, each with their own quirks and ambitions. Beginning with a cheeky ensemble portraying the genesis of life, “More” follows the trajectory of these characters’ lives from the point of fertilisation to adulthood, deftly weaving through the different paths they take in defining their destinies.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This seemingly innocent question set the stage for the rest of the play as a social commentary on success.
As the characters cycled through conventional professions (“Judge!” “Scientist!” “Pilot!”), another character chimes in with his own dream:
“I want to be happy!”
“HUH?!”
“SCENE CHANGE!”
Before the audience gets a chance to grapple with this abrupt ending, “More” zips us off to a “life clinic” of sorts, where doctors prescribe remedies for patients stricken with personal crises. Credit card and country club for a dejected husband, education abroad for an unhappy kid. However, it seems that the treatment is ineffectual and careless, perhaps a reflection of society’s one-size-fits-all ideals of success.
We gain a glimpse into the lives of a clerk, a hawker (aptly named Kway Teow Tan), and a junior doctor, among others. Despite their drastically different backgrounds and situations, the search for joy unites their struggles. In reaching milestones that conventionally mark success, they start to question the norms that hold material achievements over everything.
Throughout the rest of the play, we repeatedly visit this clinic, which serves as a metaphorical crossroads between the characters’ crises, even those of the very ones running the clinic. The story wraps up with a poignant scene, where we see one of the doctors confront her own choices. It’s less of a resolution than a question, and yet the ending lends the play a sense of lightness amid the heavy subject matter.
In a play as short as 15 minutes, each character’s time onstage is fleeting. We hardly get more than a minute of dialogue from even the most significant of characters. Yet, we were deeply impressed by how the script struck a balance between developing the story and the characters, who all left a lasting impression on us by the end of the play.
“Thank you Raffles Institution. Scene change!” As the curtains closed on “More”, these witty words from the emcee drew laughs from the audience and judges alike. In a way though, the end of the 2024 SYF season did signpost the denouement of a major turning point in the members’ careers.
The production team didn’t have to wait long to find out about the results of their hard work – SYF results were slated to be released the next day. But for now, though, they congratulated each other on their performances and reveled in the fact that their stringent diet to keep their voice and body ready to perform (no deep-fried, dairy, spicy food etc.) was over. As a celebratory meal, they decided to eat Char Kway Teow, a toast to the character Kway Teow Tan in “More”.
Bump-out: Reflections from SYF AP 2024
This is Raffles Players’ 5th rendition of Haresh Sharma’s play, though they didn’t realise it until they found old photobooks of previous productions. This was purely coincidental (great minds think alike, after all), but this discovery also reveals a different side of “More”.
“What’s really cool is that the play itself has many different opportunities for staging. No two versions of it are the same, because everyone interprets it so differently,” Stage Manager Jordan Chiam (24A01A) comments. “Being part of the creative process with everyone was great.” Raffles Players certainly was creative — a last scene of Ah Huay the Cleaner mopping and crumpling up the cloth around the doctor was a particularly poignant finale to the production. In a way, the abstractness of “More” allowed the production team to stand out and exercise their creative liberties to the fullest extent.
In the 50-day frenzy to prepare for “More”, the team found themselves having to adjust, readjust, and adjust some more. As Director Zahra plainly puts it, “We had to make it work.” In addition to having to settle staging, costumes and logistics, they also cut down 3 minutes of excess runtime mere days before D-Day, which unfortunately meant that the initial script had to be completely revamped in a drastic edit dubbed the “6 April cuts”.
Despite this setback, the team still pulled through to execute a performance they could all be proud of. As Raffles Players’ Chairperson Camilla Anum Mohamad Ashraff (24S03B) remarked, “More” was definitely a fulfilling experience, and it was heartwarming to see their efforts come to fruition on D-day.
And as we found out courtesy of the jubilant cries of our Raffles Players peers the next morning, the team’s dedication absolutely paid off. For the first time in 8 years, Raffles Players achieved the highest SYF award of Distinction. Another layer of gold was further gilded onto this trophy, knowing that the playwright of their play, who was on the judges’ panel, found their adaptation worthy of the award.
As much as the journey was satisfying for the team, “More” was also just as much of an enjoyable experience for the audience. The cast’s dedication to their craft shone through, and it seems like Mr. Rodney’s advice was kept well in mind as they delivered each line.
Zanna Low (24S06A), who played the Nurse, later shares that she tried to be present during the performance and let go of her anxieties regarding the specifics. “Technicals is one aspect [of the performance], but bringing out the heart of the character is another.”
Indeed, it’s evident that Raffles Players’ Distinction was well deserved. However, as the play suggests in both name and plot, “More” goes far beyond the success it achieved in SYF 2024. Rather, in Director Zahra’s own words, it’s a larger tribute to “making your own path, and not following the norms that society pushes onto you”.
Play Credits:
Director: SITI ZAHRA BINTE FAHRUDIN (24A01E)
Stage Manager: JORDAN CHIAM CHENG JUN (24A01A)
Cast:
| Actor (Class) | Character(s) |
| KANG LUO QI BENECIA (24S06K) | DOCTOR 1 (CHILD 3/COLLEAGUE 1) |
| LU RENYI (25S06C) | DOCTOR 2 (CHILD 7/BOSS) |
| ZANNA YVETTE LOW EE SIAN (24S06A) | NURSE(CHILD 6 /GIRLFRIEND/COLLEAGUE 2) |
| CHUA XIN CHEN (25A01B) | AH HUAY, THE CLEANER (CHILD 4/KWAY TEOW TAN’S WIFE/AH BENG) |
| TAN EN (24S03C) | KWAY TEOW TAN (CHILD 5/STUDENT/CLERK’S FRIEND) |
| CIARA CHONG EN SEE (25S03D) | CLERK (CHILD 1/SHAMPOO GIRL) |
| DASARI TANISHA (24S03H) | CHILD 2 (KWAY TEOW TAN’S SON/ARCHITECT/CLERK’S FATHER) |
Props and Sets: TAN EN (24S03C), CHUA XIN CHEN (25A01B), ZANNA YVETTE LOW EE SIAN (24S06A), LU RENYI (25S06C), QUEK YI TING RACHEL (24A01D)
Costumes and Makeup: DASARI TANISHA (24S03H), CIARA CHONG EN SEE (25S03D), KANG LUO QI BENECIA (24S06K), MAIRA BUDIPUTRI (24A01C), ZOEY DONG YIJIE (24S07C)
Lights and Sounds: RHEA SHARMA (25S06A), CAMILLIA ANUM MOHAMAD ASHRAFF (24S03B)