By Rosheen Fatima

Kelvin Wong of The Oral Stage speaks to Rosheen Fatima on staging the play ‘Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m feeling So Sad’ later this month

No, the Oral Stage is not a term for live porn performances, it is not a stage filled with gastronomical delights, nor is it one of Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages. Well it is, but we’re not talking about that one. This Oral Stage is a theatre company focusing on bringing theatre to the masses and being a platform for Malaysian youth.

    Founded in 2004, by Kelvin Wong (now executive director), Reuben WJ Kang, Patricia Low and Priya Kulasegaran; The Oral Stage has since grown to six core members with different individuals coming in to work on each new project. Over the last five years, this independent theatre company has come to be a voice for Malaysian youth; allowing them to express themselves on stage or backstage and tell the stories of their generation in the various platforms they offer. From Stagevault – a performing arts resource centre, Stage Scene Investigation – a discussion group, Stageworks – theatre workshops, Stagevibes – the music department, Gamestage – improvisational comedy, Quikstage – new theatre works for those with little or no experience to get involved in theatre and Biggstage – larger scale productions depicting work by more established playwrights both local and international.

    The latest Biggstage production is the upcoming ‘Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You In The Closet And I’m Feelin’ So Sad’ by playwright and four time Tony award nominee Arthur Kopit (whose book on the re-telling of Federico Fellini's film ‘8 1/2’, has been made into the star-studded film ‘Nine’, to be released later this year). The play also received the 1962 Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award and toured the United States and Europe earning rave reviews for its absurdist narrative.

‘Macabre, bizarre and exaggerated’ is how director Kelvin Wong, describes the play. Only 24, this psychology degree graduate is also a drama teacher and directs the bulk of The Oral Stage’s productions. Looking forward to ‘Oh Dad, Poor Dad,’ he thinks that it will be ‘a lot of fun creating and presenting [the play] as a group. I believe the audience will have a really good time watching it too. ‘Oh Dad, Poor Dad’ is a fresh and oftentimes comedic interpretation and perspective to an age-old issue mankind has been struggling with.’

Telling the tale of an overprotective mother and her naïve son who check into a hotel together with a pet piranha and a couple of Venus flytraps, the play follows the mother and son pair as they are visited by a love-struck naval officer and the seductive babysitter from next-door. The son begins to think of escaping while the fish and plants get hungry and while the mother’s dead husband is hidden in the closet. The main cast comprises of Nicole-Ann Thomas, Alfred Loh and Hanneke Talbot, with a supporting ensemble cast. The characters – though exaggerated – possess many traits that people can relate to. ‘[They] are blow-ups of real people with real problems and struggles in life. The characters in this play are rather lost, scared and confused, in search of something better in their lives – and I think all of us are like that.’
 
Performing the play as it was originally intended, Kelvin feels that it wouldn’t work as well as a local adaptation and that the audience will have no problem relating to the story and the characters. ‘Our productions have to mean something to us and the society that we live in,’ says Kelvin, this play ‘tells the tale of a mother’s overprotectiveness over her son, and I think to a large extent a lot of people can relate to this – not necessarily through mother and son specifically, but on a larger societal context where there’s an authoritarian yearn to control (often enough disguised through the excuse of “love” and the cliché of “it’s for your own good”), and the struggle of being controlled by wanting to escape in return.’ He goes on to explain that this relationship is apparent in many aspects of society from educational establishments, the workplace and politics as well. ‘I believe a lot of people will find this familiar. And that’s the whole point of a good play, to tell stories that we in a community go through and struggle with.’ Kelvin says.

Something that they plan to carry on doing in the future, with plans in the works for a three-week theatre festival in mid-2010 with a week of new collections of short plays as seen before in Quikstage, followed by a full length production and ending with a week of some of the best original short plays that have been performed by The Oral Stage over the past five years.

    With The Oral Stage providing such mouthwatering theatre treats, how can us performing arts buffs not salivate?