It's been 3 days after I watched Swimming With Sharks and it still feels like yesterday.
Usually, before I watch a play, I would do some basic research as to who has staged the production before, etc. but this time, somehow I didn't, it completely slipped my mind.
This post, I must state, is not a review. Just some afterthoughts, because I prefer to leave the serious stuff to the professionals.
The last time I watched a Pandemonium production was The Full Monty, which I found thoroughly entertaining. Singapore has a very talented pool of theatre practitioners, and Adrian and Tracie Pang are definitely among them. A fresh touch this time, though, was George Young.
I've worked with George Young last year for the NUYOU Time 2012 cover, he was still very new in the Singapore entertainment scene at that time, and it was just a couple of months before the debut of the Millon Dollar Money Drop. To be very frank, my first impression of him wasn't that fantastic. Not in a bad sense, but just that in his own clothes before styling of any form, I found him to be too "student-like". Quite like your regular guy-next-door, more than someone with star appeal. But after interviewing him, I realised that he's rather witty and charming. It was great to see him on stage for once.
Swimming With Sharks is not Young's first theatre production, but it is his debut on the Singapore stage. Overall, I thought he could've "let go" even more, especially in the "psycho" scene. And the emotional changes of Guy(the character Young played) between realising that he was being cheated, and "turning psycho", could've been portrayed more "smoothly". Ok no spoilers here but that's all I'm going to tell you. And with stage veterans like Adrian Pang and Janice Koh, it's difficult not to be slightly overshadowed.
One thing I really must commend on this production though, is the diction of all the actors. This, to me, is the beauty of stage productions (vs movies), even though not every actor is able to attain it yet. Even with no subtitles, I could understand every word they were saying. No, I do not mean that English is a foreign language to me, but if you have seen plays leaving you wishing there were subtitles, you'd get what I mean.
Also, for someone who has just left her job, I could really relate to a play centred upon the corporate rat race. Not that my previous working environment was as severe as Keystone Pictures(the movie production company in the play), just to clarify! It's just that, it all felt quite real, and I really wouldn't be surprised if such things are happening every day in companies (well, except for the "twist" that happened in the end). The screenplay(Swimming With Sharks was initially filmed as a movie, starring Kevin Spacey) written and directly by George Huang was, after all, based on a collage of true incidents. Every minute was entertaining, right till the very last scene. And I went home thinking about what the real corporate world might be like in other industries.
So please, try and catch Swimming With Sharks by Pangdemonium productions at Drama Centre before it's final showing on 7 October 2012. For great evening of entertainment, and also of course to support local theatre! For ticketing details, check out Sistic (www.sistic.com.sg)
What I really want to do NOW, is to find Kevin Spacey's movie version of Swimming With Sharks and watch Buddy "Spacey-Ackerman" devour his new assistant. And no, there is simply not enough space here to talk about the great Kevin Spacey.... :P
Zhuan @home
