Go watch Titoudao!
When Yh told me she had booked tickets to watch Titoudao, I must say I wasn’t all that ”jumping for joy” mood. Had not much idea what the play was about and the weird sounding title didn’t seem to hold much promise. Boy was I wrong!
Must say I haven’t seen a play that infuses wayang, getai, disco into 2 threads of stories (about the fictional Titoudao and Ah Chiam). As usual, Pam Ooi shines in the role of Ah Chiam and although I had a hard time catching the hokkien during the wayang sections (luckily there was “lyrics” next to the stage), I thoroughly enjoyed the very flashback scenes as Ah Chiam narrated her growing up years.
Rather amazing how a small cast of Pam Oei, Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Karen Tan, Sebastian Tan, Chua En Lai, Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Gordon Choy and Judy Tan brought wayang to life at the Drama Centre Theatre.
Titoudao is an English music drama about the life of a Hokkien street opera actress, Madam Oon Ah Chiam. During her early twenties, Madam Oon performed the role of this incorrigible but likeable character – Titoudao, to such perfection that the public fondly called her by this stage name. This is a play inspired by Madam Oon’s memories and experiences.
Source: About Titoudao
by Lim Tai Poh
I saw this play and there were lots of outstanding performances, yes, but don’t you think roots revivalism by english-educated deracinated chinese SHOULD NOT be conducted at the cost of revisiting the SAME experience of deracination (or cultural erosion) on Adli “Alin†Mosbit, the Malay performer who, poor girl, was trained to sing in hokkien (she doesn’t know the language obviously) so that chinese-singaporeans can enjoy the exotica presented by such a sight?
I suspect the mandarin theatre people would never have done this so blindly. Ironically, they know what it’s like to be marginalised and are much more sensitive to things like this.