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Written by STELLA Written by STELLA KON | Directed by GLEN GOEI | Starring IVAN HENG From 4 – 28 SEPTEMBER 2019 Venue The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ Wild Rice,Funan SYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Ivan Heng is one of Singapore’s most acclaimed Words can hardly describe what I felt when I first encountered Emily in 1999. To have my life reflected back at me, validating my actors. Glen Goei is one of Singapore’s most place in the world, was electrifying and affirming. It strengthened celebrated directors. Together, they bring to life my conviction that a people’s stories need to be told. one of Singapore theatre’s most iconic characters: Slipping on Emily’s kebaya and kasut manek again reminds me why Singapore theatre matters. Through the shared experience Emily Gan, an abandoned girl who overcomes all of theatre, we begin to understand who we are and how we came to be. This quintessentially Singaporean story doesn’t just odds to emerge as the matriarch of a distinguished celebrate Peranakan culture – it reveals universal truths about Peranakan household. what it means to be human in a rapidly modernising world. 20 years ago, I said I would be playing this role every 10 years; Evoking the golden age of Straits-Chinese culture from the 1930s, I could not have foreseen that I would be reprising this role to this new production promises to be the most immersive version of inaugurate WILD RICE’s own theatre. It is our hope this play may Stella Kon’s enduring classic yet. Step into our theatre and become find its fullest expression yet in the more intimate space of The one of Emily’s guests in her opulent, meticulously kept mansion... Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, where the audience and the performer can be more keenly connected. In this decadent world, fulfilment for a woman can only be found in her roles as a daughter-in-law, wife, mother and home-maker. So When we were designing WILD RICE @ Funan, we set out to create what must she do to succeed? And at what cost? Is Emily a woman optimum conditions for an audience to experience a theatre trapped by tradition, or a feminist ahead of her time? performance, as well as a space that would empower artists to In 2000, Ivan Heng founded WILD RICE with an electrifying develop their best work. We are deeply grateful to everyone who production of this landmark play, in which he first made Emily Gan has contributed to the building of this performing arts complex. his own. We can think of nothing more appropriate to commemorate In particular, I would like to thank The Ngee Ann Kongsi, our WILD RICE’s new home. Founding Patrons and our Angels. Thank you, Stella, for creating one of Singapore theatre’s most compelling characters, in an enduring classic that will continue IMDA Rating: General to entertain and enlighten future generations. Thank you, Glen, Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) Performance: Sat 14 Sep, 7.30pm for helming this landmark production, and for challenging and Captioned Performance: Sat 21 Sep, 2.30pm inspiring me through the years. Audio-Described Performance: Sun 22 Sep, 2.30pm (touch tour will begin at 1.30pm) A theatre is a place for a community to gather and listen to stories. Thank you for being part of this community and for commemorating this milestone with us. On behalf of Tony and all at WILD RICE, we thank you for your support and hope you enjoy the show! IVAN HENG MESSAGE FROM MESSAGE FROM PLAYWRIGHT DIRECTOR I have seen many actors play Emily It’s no exaggeration to say that Emily of Emerald Hill – and they are all different! This is changed my life. the wonder of theatre – each actor brings his or her own personality and 35 years ago, I had returned to Singapore for the experience to the same script to create summer before my final year at Cambridge University, a unique performance; and even the and I still had no idea what I was going to do after same person’s performance can change graduating. But the answer hit me with remarkable and evolve over the years, as the actor clarity as I watched Max Le Blond’s sublime production grows in experience and maturity. of Stella Kon’s now classic play, starring the inimitable Margaret Chan. Emily Gan helped me realise that I 20 years ago, Ivan Heng’s charismatic wanted to translate my passion for the theatre into a personality and theatre skills gave us life and career in the arts. That same night, I resolved an outstanding Emily, which thrilled to enrol in drama school in London. audiences then. With the passage of time, Ivan has scaled ever greater professional 15 years down the road, Emily found me again. On heights – and now, ably abetted by Glen a return visit from London, where I was living and Goei, he is creating a new Emily for a working as a director, I watched, spellbound, as Emily new era. I am excited and eager to see came to life before me – this time as a result of the Ivan’s Bicentennial Emily! electrifying collaboration between Ivan Heng and the late, great director, Krishen Jit. This production I take this opportunity to offer WILD made the play come alive with new possibilities. And RICE a thousand congratulations on it helped me decide that it was time for me to return to the opening of its new theatre. I wish Singapore for good. them every success, and look forward to seeing the lasting impact this In 2011, when WILD RICE staged the play at the new performance space will have on Esplanade Theatre (which seats 1,950 people!), I finally Singapore theatre! had the opportunity to claim Emily for myself. It was a privilege to fill that epic space with Emily’s story – STELLA KON which, of course, so closely mirrors the story of my own Peranakan heritage and family. Today, it is my greatest privilege to meet my old friend, Emily, again. I truly believe that this incredibly intimate production is how Emily of Emerald Hill is meant to greet audiences – as if they were guests in her own living room. My most profound gratitude goes out to everyone – on stage and off – who has helped me bring Emily home to WILD RICE’s new theatre in Funan. GLEN GOEI EMILY OF EMERALD HILL THROUGH THE YEARS 35 YEARS AGO, EMILY GAN WAS BORN. JOIN US IN HER OPULENT MANSION ON EMERALD HILL AS WE TRACE THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STELLA KON’S PLAY – A CLASSIC THAT HAS BEEN PERFORMED ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND HAS EVEN LAUNCHED A THEATRE COMPANY RIGHT HERE IN SINGAPORE... Emily of Emerald Hill 2000 at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel BIRTH OF AN ICON Emily of Emerald Hill took the top prize most-performed English-language play. in Singapore’s National Playwriting Outside of Singapore and Malaysia, it has For playwright Stella Competition in 1983, and remains been performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Kon, Emerald Hill was relevant today, because it touches so Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, New York, home. Stella’s parents insightfully on universal themes. Hamburg, Munich, Hawaii, Edinburgh, were both born there. Through the multitude of roles assumed Hong Kong, Beijing and the UK. The In the 1950s, Stella spent by Emily over the course of her life – play has also been broadcast over Radio some of her formative as daughter and mother, hostess and Iceland, and translated into Mandarin, years growing up in socialite, wife and widow – the play Japanese, French and Kannada. Oberon, her family home sensitively explores the concepts of situated along Emerald womanhood, identity and society. EMILY GOES WILD! Hill Road. EMILY TAKES ON In 1999, Emily of Emerald Hill was It’s no wonder, then, reinvented for the new millennium. that Emily of Emerald A LIFE OF HER OWN In this collaboration with Dramalab in Hill is particularly close Emily of Emerald Hill received its world Kuala Lumpur, renowned Malaysian to Stella’s heart. The premiere at the Five Arts Centre in KL director Krishen Jit took the reins of a one-woman play is a in 1984, with acclaimed Malaysian actor bold new production that starred Heng masterful blend of fact Leow Puay Tin taking the lead. Since – who remains the only male actor to and fiction, charting the then, the title role has been played by have played this role. history and traditions a host of actors from Singapore and Together, they produced a groundbreaking of Singapore’s Peranakan Malaysia – including Margaret Chan, adaptation of Emily of Emerald Hill that community through the life Ivan Heng, Neo Swee Lin, Pearlly Chua, underscored the play’s gender politics of Emily Gan – a formidable Karen Tan, Jalyn Han and more. with wit and irony. At the same time, nyonya matriarch based the production paid tribute to the on Stella’s own grandmother. Over the years, Emily of Emerald Hill has Emily of Emerald Hill 1999 become Singapore’s best-known and traditional art form of Wayang Peranakan in Kuala Lumpur HAIL THE INSPIRATRIX NYONYA DAWN MARIE LEE, EDITOR OF THE PERANAKAN MAGAZINE, MUSES ABOUT THE MODERN NYONYA AND THE WOMEN OF EMILY’S TIME. – or Peranakan theatre Who would Nyonya – which featured casts Emily Gan be if she lived comprising exclusively in our time? Given her men, as it was considered resilience, acerbic wit socially inappropriate and compulsive streak for women to perform on for success, I think she stage until the 1960s. might rule the roost as the chairwoman of a This iconic gender-bending family business, make production of Emily of Emerald Hill has in the Esplanade, which seats 1,950.
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