Review: Naked

  

The following is my review of the play titled Naked, presented by Teater Kami. The review will also be done in comparison to an earlier show I have watched, titled Kebaya Homies. I find that is apt to look at both plays side by side, as they both talk about difficult issues that are faced by the society of today. Another similarity between the two plays is that they have both been staged before, and the staging of Naked at the Yale’s NUS Diversity Week in January 2020 was the fifth time the original actor brings the characters to life. And although Kebaya Homies were presented for the first time this year in January, it is to be known that the script is actually a culmination, done in a mix-and-match style, of other scripts written by Haresh Sharma over the past years. The actors are original actors who have done the plays in the past.

One of the things that I have talked about in my review for the Kebaya Homies is the blurring of lines between audience and the performers. In contrast to that, the lines were clearly demarcated for Naked, as the sole performer, Dalifah Shahril performed the character of a woman suffering from bipolar disorder, in a monologue, on an elevated stage that is at least 2 metres away from the audience. what was interesting to me was that the script was an autobiography, who had just recovered from many episodes of depression and “mania”, which was the extreme opposite spectrum to depression. Just like Kebaya Homies, songs were weaved into the song; songs that actually meant something to the writer. For example, Dalifah actually performed an excerpt of Purple Rain, which according to the writer was a song that she sang on an MRT platform at the top of her voice during her manic state while she stripped herself naked, running from one end of the platform to the other. There was also a self-commentary on how our society is quick to judge her as being improper as there is somehow a decorum on how women should behave in a society in Singapore. This got me thinking about the many reasons that could have possibly made us as a society that judges in an instant; why don’t we take the time to understand a person’s situation, their backstory and try to empathise with them? Could it have been driven by fears, such as the fears of the unknown? I also thought, production wise, it would have been better if this production had been performed in a more intimate setting such as the Blackbox. With a closer proximity, I think the performance could have brought about a stronger impact. I also feel that by drawing such a stark clear demarcation between character and audience, it kind of mimic what we have already been doing as a society—drawing ourselves away from the individuals suffering from mental illnesses.

One of the most striking moment in the play was the dialogue between the main protagonist with the head of the Main Muslim Organisation in Singapore, known as MUIS, in which she told him that the end of the world is coming. While the audience laughs at this, I thought it’d be interesting to kind of look closer at what we are laughing at; and if we were, as an audience, laughing due to the fact that we are feeling uncomfortable at how we would normally react in real-life context/ situation. Of how we, as the so-called “normal” people in the society see the whole situation as being ridiculous and how we laugh cos the laughter is part of the process of ridiculing those who were different; those who were cornered or separated from the society due to their characteristics, that we all deemed as “abnormal” or, to put it crudely, “crazy”.

On a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed how this script was staged, and how such delicate issue has been staged with sensitivity and yet, remained “open” allowing audience to reflect upon the society, and then upon themselves.