Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral is widely regarded as one of Kuo Pao Kun’s finest works. It draws parallels between Singapore’s socio-political history and the Ming dynasty eunuch Admiral Zheng He's experiences, and contemplates themes of displacement and the insidiousness of power.
In what was likely a first in the history of Singapore theatre, two separate productions of the same play opened within weeks of each other. The English language production by TheatreWorks (now T:>Works), directed by Ong Keng Sen, premiered at the Festival of Asian Performing Arts in May 1995, and the Chinese language version by The Theatre Practice, directed by Pao Kun himself, premiered just two months later. While stylistically worlds apart, both versions received critical acclaim and demonstrated how well the text opened itself to interpretation. One of the most memorable scenes from the TheatreWorks’ version featured actress Janice Koh delivering an eight-minute monologue while spinning like a dervish. It was this archival image of her that was projected onto the background of the publicity key visual of the Esplanade production in 2015.
This archival recording is from the 2015 production which was part of The Studios, Esplanade’s annual season of contemporary theatre. Held in the SG50 year, the season was themed ‘Fifty’ and featured 50 Singapore English-language plays. The five-week season was curated by the art centre’s theatre programming team together with director and playwright Chong Tze Chien, with research input from theatre studies academic Dr Robin Loon. Each week featured one full-length production staged at the Esplanade Theatre Studio and nine plays grouped into thematic strands and presented as dramatised readings. Directors invited to be part of the season were given a list of the plays and groupings to choose from. Only one chose to take on Descendants.
By the late ’90s and early ’00s, Singapore theatre had firmly found its footing and confidence in exploring Singaporean voices on stage. Another generation of artists had emerged who were interested in experimenting with a different type of performance vocabulary—with space, movement and multimedia. One of the many experimental performance platforms which enabled it at that time was [names changed to protect the innocent] under Jeff Chen’s artistic directorship. He had been nicknamed l’enfant terrible of Singapore theatre because of his directorial style and productions which were visually impactful, contrarian and fiercely unconventional. In a post-show discussion, when asked why he chose Descendants, he said, “I think that’s the only one that I’m capable of doing. The rest I don’t know how to do… my interest does not lie with well-made plays. So I really like text that’s open for interpretation. So out of the 50 plays, this one is the most open text”.
Taking on such a seminal classic carried a heavy weight of expectation. Jeff had come across an article where Pao Kun defended exploratory works and was quoted as saying, “…a worthy failure is more valuable than a mediocre success”. This was his response to Pao Kun’s audacity to fail. As the audience took their seats in the Esplanade Theatre Studio, they saw a box set of a naturalistic mid-century boardroom-like space with wooden panelled walls, frosted windows and heavy wooden doors. It didn’t offer any hint of what was to come. The scenes were recorded as voiceovers by a who’s who of Singapore theatre actors. They were juxtaposed against various tableaus and movement sequences by five silent performers on stage. The stage action would sometimes complement the voiceovers while at other times they would clash. What stood out was how much this version was firmly rooted in Jeff’s style, being unapologetically irreverent while at the same time so faithful and respectful of Pao Kun’s original text and powerful imagery. What could be a more potent parallel of the Ming court than the modern day corporate boardroom, the seats of power of impotent mandarins?
Typical of Jeff’s work, the response was divided. Reviews described it as either “a tedious, tasteless mess” or “delightfully subversive” and “a delightful voyage”. Eleven years on, we can once again consider whether Jeff’s Descendants was a worthy failure or a mediocre success. In recent years, the space and support for experimentation in Singapore have shrunk amidst the reality of rising costs and a lower appetite for risk. Yet the spirit to create boundary-expanding art continues through the valiant work of companies and collectives like Cake, Emergency Stairs and platforms like the Singapore Fringe Festival.
“The market is calling…”
Thankfully, not every artist has answered.
